JAN 02

The Coast Guard in Japan, like other public services from every country feeling the economic crunch, is being told to lower expenses. How do you rescue drowning people on the cheap? In the seaside towns of Takamatsu and Wakamatsu, the Coast Guard offices have taken an idea from high school students that lowers the cost of flotation devices while helping the environment.

A few years ago, a group of high school students on a field trip to the sea came across a drowning man. The quick-thinking students improvised a flotation device using 16 plastic bottles and rescued the man. Though the invention was invented out of necessity, the Coast Guard realized that it was effective.

Each of these red lifesavers made from recycled polyethlene bottles cost about $2. That's a significant savings for the Coast Guard which used to spend $50 to $200 for new official flotation devices. The Coast Guard plans to have the bottles at piers and breakwater lights on rocky shores near fishing ports at the door of lighthouses. The Coast Guard also has step-by-step instructions here on how to make your own flotation devices out of plastic bottles here, but you have to be able to read Japanese.

Photo credit: Wakamatsu Coast Guard
Via: InventorSpot

Comments (5)

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Crafty.
written by Mimi, January 02, 2009

I love finding new uses for plastic bottles. This is quite brilliant.

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memory's
written by frank, January 04, 2009

that brings backs memory's i use to use milk jugs for floats in a huge rock cory me a my buddy's swam in in Eureka Mo.
Im glad they worked cause if they would of failed i wouldnt be typing this.

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Reduce, Re-use, Recycle.
written by Cindex, January 04, 2009

This is a great idea on their part. The more uses we can find, the better.

Just wait, one of these days someone is going to make a boat.

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Securely retaining the throw rope
written by Ethan, January 05, 2009

Actually, the photographs are self-explanatory enough that it's possible to (almost) understand the directions without reading the text.

Cood design, actually. I would suggest that you could make a loop where the throw rope is supposed to be held. I wish I knew what substance they were pouring into the bottles, presumably to make them unsusceptible to leaks.

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Sand
written by Clinch, January 05, 2009

It's sand, and it's added to make the bottles weigh a bit more, so you can throw them further.
But I don't speak a word of Japanese, so could be completely wrong.

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