By Patrick Avenell

SYDNEY, NSW: Electrolux Floor Care has decided to do the opposite of BP, and will be removing waste from the ocean in a new project that is just as amusing as it is socially responsible.

Normally when multinational corporations are used in the same sentence as the ocean waste, companies such as Exxon and BP are most immediately thought of. It’s refreshing, therefore, that no sea otters or rare salmon species are being displaced by Electrolux’ new initiative – quite the contrary.

Called the Vac from the Sea project, Electrolux plans on raising awareness plastic waste in open water by recovering this refuse and using the material to make a new vacuum cleaner. In a less than subtle dig at the inability of legislators to properly address this problem, Electrolux explained this new process with gusto.

“The environment is a concern and responsibility of everyone and the marine plastic pollution is an issue much too important to leave just to the politicians,” reads the corporate statement.

Australia is a key part of this plan, as the Pacific Ocean, our nation’s swimming pool, will be the focal point of this waste collection. Presenting the local perspective on this is Electrolux green ambassador for the Asia Pacific region, Julian Huitfeldt.

“The Pacific Ocean is polluted with the largest floating garbage islands in the world, some two kilometres long,” he said. There are other 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.”

Huitfeldt said interested parties should check out this YouTube video.