BOTTLE ROCKET 

On August 20, 2003, 13 years after promising to raft the Mississippi River to a fellow Marine in a foxhole in Kuwait (1991 Gulf War) I assembled 232 2-liter plastic bottles and two bicycles into a pontoon paddle-wheeler.

Launching from Lake Itasca, Mn, and arriving in Venice, La 5 months and 2,300 miles later, I saw an unending trail of trash going to sea.  The world's rivers feed trash to the gyres in the middle of the ocean.