Plastic Bottles, 2007 by Chris Jordan.
Detail shot.
Detailer shot, actual size of installation photo.
This is a picture of two million plastic bottles, the number used in the US every five minutes.
DAMN!!
His website has more in this series. Want to see what the amount of money the US government spends in Iraq every hour ($12.5 million) looks like? It’s on there. Along with 2.3 million prison jumpsuits for the number of incarcerated Americans in 2005, the 60,000 plastic bags used every 5 seconds in the US, and 65,000 cigarettes representing the teenagers under 18 in America who become addicted to cigarettes each month.
In the intro to this amazing series he makes the viewer promise to go see his installations in real life if given the chance. We just missed the prison jumpsuit exhibit at the Von Lintel gallery in Manhattan, but I’m keeping my eye out for more chances to see this. When you look at his website it is clear that the scale of these pieces is HUGE and it makes sense that it would be hard to find the space in NY to actually show these pieces.
I couldn’t find my reusable water bottle-type thing today and I bought some Poland Spring. I feel guilty now.
I bought a Poland Spring today too. But I’ve since refilled it like 4 times.
God, that’s depressing.
Five minutes? I knew it was bad, but, damn!
god that just made me soooo depressed! remember though that re-using your plastic water bottle is bad because the plastic eventually wears away and the carcinogens go in your body (don’t trust the FDA!!!) like pizappas said, use a water bottle! my boyfriend just bought a durable aluminum one from mysigg.com
single-use plastic bottles do degrade with time, and leach dioxin (the nasty stuff that was used to poison formerly-pretty-now-scarily-scarred Ukrainian prez Yushchenko 3 years ago) into whatever you are drinking, esp if you heat or freeze them.
the plastic bottles that are intended for re-use like nalgenes do this less so, but insulated aluminum is your best bet, even if it tastes a bit like licking a pipe.
i refill my paper cup everyday. i feel bad, just not AS bad.