Twenty-First Century Waterfall

Computer animation comparing the
US rate of plastic water bottle
recycling (approx. 100
bottles/second) to the nonrecycled
rate (approx. 845 bottles/second;
see image) for 2005.

This computer animation was made to
raise awareness about bottled
water, and its surprisingly poor
recycling rates. Since its recent
popularization, bottled water (in
all its flavors) has become
ironically one of the most
consumed, yet least recycled
beverages. For example, it is
estimated that in 2005 alone
approximately 30 billion plastic
water bottles were purchased in the
US, with only about 12% recycled
(in part due to out-dated deposit
laws), and the remaining 25 billion
bottles landfilled, littered or
incinerated.

Reduce, reuse, recycle. Innovate.

Project webpage:
http://www.cs.cornell.edu/~djames/bottledWater

Category:

Film & Animation

Tags:

• recycling
• bottled
• water
• bottle
• bill
• animation
• collisions
• sound
• synthesis
• physics
• green
• sustainable
• sustainability

[swedishvolvo]

Lazy asses just reycele its not that hard.

[grybold]

There are so many other things like this in the world today that people don't realize just because it is "out of sight, out of mind." They think they are only throwing away one bottle, but if everyone thinks that same thing, this video becomes the shocking reality. We ALL need to recycle, EVERY bottle that we use. And remember the order of priority is "reduce, reuse, then recycle."

[mcconkeyco]

excellent idea, and a frightening but effective visual... Recycle!!

[dayspeace]

hope people would continue take action to recycling things.

[grybold]

If you put JUST ONE bottle in that trash can and a million other people put JUST ONE bottle in the trash can, 24 hours per day, 365 days per year ... That's a LOT of bottles!  Next time you are standing next to a trash can with JUST ONE bottle, have the mentality that if you throw away that one bottle, you are actually throwing away one MILLION bottles. If you put that one bottle in the trash, you just put one million bottles in the trash.

[swedishvolvo]

@TheFletchAsketch I misspelled "It's"?

[TheFletchAsketch]

@swedishvolvo

Dumb asses just spelling its not that hard.

[john17972]

Our recycling area only takes types 1 and 2 plastics. I often get other types of plastic that they don't accept. Maybe they should pass a law saying that companies must use only types 1 and 2 plastic or glass for beverage bottles. I think this would reduce the amount of plastic going to landfills.

[TheFletchAsketch]

@john17972

You serious bro?

and create way more unneeded CO2 and other chemicals to float around our atmosphere?

How about we RECYCLE it in order to reduce the amount of bottles we have.

[DTQueen90]

It would help if more public places supported recycling. For instance, I worked at a Safeway Starbucks and at now at a mall. In both locations, we ended up tossing many items that could've been recycled because the only recycling facilities both places had were for cardboard only.