836 Plastic Bottles: A Water-Shed Moment

A documentary about the growing amount of plastic water bottles in the world and why the problem is only getting worse. The point is exemplified in a piece of artwork using 836 bottles, formed to look like an archway. Why did I use 836 bottles to build the archway? Because, this is the average number of containers of bottled water that the typical American family of four consumes in a single year.

Written and Produced by Dorian Roffe-Hammond, Environmental Hydrologist
Directed by Sean Boyd
Music is "Transience", by dreamSTATE

A lot of information is already out there. Check out the following websites to see how you can help others less fortunate:

http://www.waterforpeople.org
http://www.nrdc.org (Natural Resources Defense Council)
http://www.insidethebottle.org

Citations:

"marine ecosystem." Encyclopædia Britannica. 2010. Encyclopædia Britannica Online. 18 Jan. 2010 (http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/365256/marine-ecosystem).

A few more facts and figures you probably haven't heard yet:

- It takes about 45% more water to make a slice of white bread (10.6 gallons) than a slice of whole grain bread (7.3 gallons) because more flour is used and because that flour requires more processing to remove the brown color.

- The average cost of 15 gallons of water inn developing nations equals 15 minutes of pay. The average cost of 200 gallons of water in North America equals about six minutes of pay.

- One woman in a developing nation can carry between 4 and 5 gallons of water home from a single trip to the village well - if she is lucky enough to live with a well.

- In a 100-year period, a water molecule spends 98 years in the ocean, 20 months as ice, about 2 weeks in lakes and rivers, and less than a week in the atmosphere.

- Each day, the sun evaporates a trillion tons of water.

- A quarter of the world's population is without safe drinking water.

- Florine is a known poison. Yet, it is accepted practice for public water suppliers to fluoridate water to prevent dental cavities.

- A person pays about 25 cents for water use on a daily basis.

- The principal sources of water contamination are associated with the post World War II chemical age.

- Most of the world's people must walk at least 3 hours to fetch water.

- Over 70,000 different water contaminants have been identified.

- It take 1,850 gallons of water to refine one barrel of crude oil.

Oh, and in case you were wondering which bottled water is the favorite in the Lehighton area... well, that would be Acadia, distributed by the Giant Grocery Chain. Sorry Dasani.

Category:

Education

Tags:

• watershed
• water
• plastic
• bottles
• pollution
• great
• pacific
• garbage
• patch
• documentary
• marine
• 836

[MaxxHydr0]

Absolutely not. I don't believe in supporting the bottled water fiends. I had the full consent of the Carbon County Waste Department, and a key, to take all the bottles I needed from their recycling bins. Then I returned them when finished.

[forgreenies]

I hope you didn't buy those bottles to make the arch..