Yesterday we posted that scientists are not sure where all the plastic floating in the vast Atlantic and Pacific garbage patches is going.  Sadly, the answer is probably not that a big vacuum cleaner is vacuuming the stuff up to recycle it. Nevertheless, here is a great story about Electrolux, which is facing, believe it or not, a shortage of recycled plastic with which to make vacuum cleaners.    Electrolux has launching its ‘Vac from the Sea’ initiative to gather plastic from the ocean and along the shoreline and to turn that  plastic into vacuum cleaners.

“There are plastic islands, some several times the size of the state of Texas, floating in our oceans. Yet on land, we struggle to get hold of enough recycled plastics to meet the demand for sustainable vacuum cleaners. What the world needs now is a better plastic karma”, says Cecilia Nord, Vice President, Floor Care Environmental and Sustainability Affairs, Electrolux.   We are not entirely sure what “a better plastic karma” might be, but we do applaud their efforts.

Vac from the Sea – Electrolux collects plastic from the oceans