“Watershed”: An Urban Intervention by MSLK

Watershed installed at the Dumbo Arts Festival

Watershed at the Figment Art Festival

Watershed at “The Age of Stupid” Worldwide Movie Premiere

Watershed is a project that toured New York City during Climate Week in 2009. The eco-installation is constructed of 1500 plastic water bottles that represent the amount of water bottles consumed in the US in 1 second! The minds behind this “urban intervention” are the designers at MSLK, a New York based graphic design firm. MSLK uses their talents as designers to raise awareness about environmental issues facing the world today. They sought to expose the staggering statistics of plastic consumption and subsequent impact over time. Their aim for Watershed is to stop people amid their everyday activities and challenge them to reflect on their consumer behavior, much like Andrea Legge’s Cup City, which forced people to reflect on their consumer behavior during a 3-day period. The installation featured hand pained signs with the staggering facts on plastic water bottle waste like, like, “Even in its smallest form, plastic will never biodegrade,” or, “ Plastic leaches toxins into the water, which have been linked to health problems such as reproductive issues and cancer”.  They constructed these signs, and the chains holding the construction together, out of the materials they collected for their eco-installations, such as plastic shopping bags, water bottles, and take-out containers. Watershed was honored with an AIGA (RE)design Award, which recognizes sustainable and socially responsible design projects worldwide. Check out the video on the assembly of Watershed below!

Sources:
http://www.MSLK.com
http://www.treehugger.com/clean-water/the-us-consumes-1500-plastic-water-bottles-every-second-a-fact-by-watershed.html

Tap Water vs. Bottled Water

Source: http://i3.mirror.co.uk

What is lacking in the choice between tap water and bottled water is knowledge. Most of us in North America are subject to the marketing of bottled water companies – I too believed that it was ultimately a way better choice than tap water. But the true facts prove otherwise. We have one of the best public water systems in the world, yet we are the largest consumers of bottled water. Companies like Nestle commoditized water, a natural resource, for the sole reason to make money. When they saw their soda sales start to alleviate due to a more health conscious population, the company’s leaders were quick to increase the commodity of bottled water – a private good that initiated in France with Perrier (Nestle would go on to purchase the company). So did Nestle ultimately benefit the world by providing the convenience of ‘pure’ water? Here are some facts regarding the choice between tap water and bottled water.

• The cost of bottled water is a good deal more than tap water. At $1.22 per gallon, it is 300x more to be exact! Moreover, if we were to take into account the fact that almost 2/3 of bottled water sales are single 500 mL bottles, the cost goes up to about $7.50 per gallon – that’s almost 2000x times more than tap water and twice the cost of a gallon of regular gasoline! In comparison, American Water Works Association showed that tap water costs only $0.004 per gallon…
• Studied have shown that bottled water is no healthier than tap water. The FDA regulates bottled water, while the EPA sets regulations on tap water. According to a study by the Environment Working Group, bottled water is just as polluted as tap water. In fact, some brands of bottled water are periodically contaminated with industrial chemical at levels above FDA standards. Additionally, Tap water gets tested for contaminants multiple times in a week while bottled water gets tested only once a week.  The have differing regulations, so for example, city tap water can have no confirmed E. coli or fecal coliform bacteria while FDA bottled water rules include no such prohibition.
• 40% of bottled water actually comes from tap water. Companies like Aquafina and Dasani are simply just filtered tap water and not water from natural springs or other “pure” sources.
• Tap water is more sustainable than bottled water. Tap water keeps things local as opposed to the oil consumption and emissions required to bring water to North America from Fiji, for example. Not to mention the amount of oil it takes to manufacture the bottle in the first place. Even the sole act of driving to the grocery store to purchase bottle water is enough to make it less sustainable than tap water, which is easily accessible in your home. So keep things local and choose tap!

-M

Reusing plastic for aesthetic purposes

Source: http://hypenotice.com

Some often overlook the third component of the unofficial sustainable saying, ‘reduce, recycle, reuse’. But many artists have been using, or reusing, plastic waste for purely aesthetic reasons. Olga Kostina is an artist who resides in one of the most beautiful natural ecosystems on the Earth in the Russian Village of Kamarchaga, in Siberian taiga. She decorates the surfaces of her wooden home with different types of plastic bottle caps, a collection that initially began accumulating as a hobby. Each of the 30,000 plastic bottle caps has been fixed by hand, using a hammer and nails. Using the variety of colours of the caps, Olga creates wonderful pixilated patterns featuring designs from traditional macramé motifs and local animals that inhabit a neighboring forest. Her work is similar to Chris Jordan’s, Caps Seurat, that uses plastic bottle caps to create Georges Seurat’s original pointillist work, and also the designs found on traditional mosaic windows.

Source: http://hypenotice.com

Source: http://hypenotice.com

Sources:
ww.ecochunk.com

Elkay EZH2O Bottle Filling Station

Source: http://elkaycomezh2o.msipressroom.com

The next generation of water fountains is here and it is certainly making a splash in public institutions throughout North America.  Elkay’s EZh2O water fountain has a fill rate that is three times faster than that of a traditional water fountain. Not only that, the new design is hygienic with its hands-free technology. The electric sensor provides touchless, sanitary operation – all you have to do is place and fill. The filling station is ideal for education, healthcare facilities, fitness clubs, and hospitality and can be seen around our own campus at Western University! What is significant about this water fountain is that it is also green! The innovative minds behind the EZh2O filling station hope to reduce our dependency on plastic water bottles and help minimize disposable plastic bottle waste in the environment. It also features a Green Ticker – an automated display that counts the quantity of 12 ounce bottles saved from the landfill by refilling reusable water bottles. Much like the facts displayed in the Watershed eco-installation, people refilling their bottles at these stations are confronted with a positive number that encourages them to keep returning and contributing to a good cause.

Although this is a huge step in the right direction for a sustainable university, we need to work towards a complete ban of plastic water bottles on campus. This will further encourage students and faculty to purchase reusable water bottles, like glass bottles, and not simply buy a plastic water bottle, refill it throughout the day, dispose, and repeat the next day. We can all make the conscious effort to ensure completely replace plastic water bottles with reusable water bottles in our everyday, on-the-go lives.

-M

Sources:
http://elkayusa.com
http://uwo.ca/fm/initiatives/accessibility.html

Plastic Bottle Homes

First plastic bottle home in Honduras

At the turn of the 21^st century, new methods of home construction were introduced that filled an important gap in the global construction industry. ECO TEC Environmental Solutions was founded in 2001 in Honduras and are credited with building the world’s first houses using plastic water bottles and soda bottles. The idea sprouted when the founders learned that 80% of plastic produced every year never made it into the recycling process. This staggering statistic coupled with the need for more affordable housing initiated the initial construction of plastic bottle homes.

The first home built using plastic bottles and soil as a blend material was in 2002 in Honduras. The construction uses no cement and features a 30 ton green roof. Some areas were left exposed, adding some aesthetics to the home through the interesting patterns made by the bottles. It follows a bioclimatic design, which keeps the inside cool when it is warm outside, and vice versa.  All materials are locally gathered through clean-up campaigns and recycling drives. Overall, the cost of construction is one-third of a traditionally constructed home of the same size. Since the first home, the company has built over 50 houses and other structures, like churches, parks and a school, in Honduras, Columbia, Bolivia and Mexico. They also shared their knowledge of plastic bottle construction with students in India and founded the franchise, ECOTEC-Africa, established in Uganda in 2011. The first plastic bottle house in Africa was built in Nigeria and features a pretty cool design. Plastic Bottle houses are built to withstand bullets, earthquakes and even fires! Each one-bedroom house uses around 7,800 plastic bottles and also includes a living room, bathroom, toilet and kitchen.

First African plastic bottle home in Nigeria

Other projects using plastic bottles have appeared in Serbia, Taiwan, Argentina, Tokyo, Europe and the United States. What is great is that they are giving new homes to plastic bottles as opposed to piling up in landfills and oceans. A trend sparked initially by ECO TEC is gradually gaining positive reviews by tackling two global issues: an increasing amount of plastic waste and a shortage of homes in certain demographics.

-M

Sources:
http://www.bluprintmasonry.com
http://www.visualnews.com
http://www.greenfab-media.com

Olivia Kaufman-Rovira: Works of trash

Olivia Kaufman-Rovira is an installation and sculpture artist based in Jersey City whose work is comprised of post-consumer plastic bottles. Kaufman-Rovira initially began collecting plastic bottles in 2008 when she was living in Barcelona, a city with poor quality tap water and thus, an abundance of plastic bottle waste. With her accumulating collection of plastic waste she created her first piece of work using water bottles, The Plastic Voyager, a boat that she sailed on a pond in the middle of the city. It symbolizes both a fun creative way to use our waste and, on a more serious note, our society’s dependence on single-use plastic and addiction to convenience.

The Plastic Voyageur, 2008

In 2010, Kaufman-Rovira was invited to contribute to the ‘Upcycled’ exhibition at the Ernest Rubenstein Gallery, curated by Barbara Lubliner. ‘Upcycled’ brings together artists who use plastic waste as their medium of choice in their art making. This choice of art-making materials speaks to the abundant availability of plastic post-consumer waste. Kaufman-Rovira’s site-specific work, Flotsam Reef Spiral, was constructed from plastic bottles and staples. Her plastic sculpture is abstract in form and works off the architecture of the exhibition space, specifically the entrance to the gallery. Similar to The Plastic Voyageur, her work focuses on two main concepts: to literally transform perspectives when gazing through the plastic and inspiring a new creative perspective on this single-use object, while also being intended for people to be confronted by the sheer quantity of plastic waste and our society’s overuse and dependence on this product. The view of the other side of the plastic gets warped slightly when looking through it, which may speak to plastic water bottle companies, like Nestle, warping our view as consumers to purchase a completely unnecessary commodity. From afar, the sculpture aesthetically engages the artist before they absorb the choice of materials used upon closer observation – much like the work of Chris Jordan and Andrea Legge discussed in earlier posts of this blog.  Flotsam Reef Spiral and the ‘Upcycled’ exhibition as a whole, helps bring awareness to the plastic derivatives of consumerism.

Flotsam Reef Spiral, 2010

For the Carriage House Arts, ‘Site Specific’ exhibition in 2011, Kaufman-Rovira contributed her work Green Beings, Plastic Hives, displayed in Gallery 4. Her massive chandeliers of wheat grass and water bottles swing side-by-side in a deliberate juxtaposition of nature and plastic, life and death, ephemera and permanence. The grass symbolizes life, human energy and potential for growth while the plastic, salvaged from the trash, is a product of human potential, ingenuity and energy. The plastic is presented in an organic form making reference to the life cycle, although it is dead and will last forever on this earth unlike organic living things. Like her two other works, Green Beings, Plastic Hives presents a visual perspective of our consumptive society.

Green Beings, Plastic Hives, 2011

Some general concepts that Olivia Kaufman-Rovira is portraying in her work are not very novel. The idea of giving new meanings to materials for the sake of art making can be traced back to Picasso’s collage of newspaper cut outs, ropes and other materials during his synthetic Cubism period. Using plastic bottles as a medium for her work would not be so significant if it didn’t pose an overarching critique of consumerism and the passivity of our throwaway society – a pressing issue that has become more and more significant in the past decade.

-M

Sources:
www.oliviakaufman.com
http://www.nj.com/hudson/index.ssf/2010/12/jersey_city_artist_gives_new_m.html
http://www.edalliance.org/clientuploads/ArtSchool/Upcycled_catalog%20(2).pdf
http://carriagehousearts.org/pdf/IslipSiteSpecifics11Catalogue.pdf

Cup City by Andrea Legge, 2005

Sometimes numbers and facts are not enough to initiate public awareness and subsequent action on a pressing environmental issue. We are so caught up in our throwaway consumer-driven lives that we are often passive to the actual effect we are posing on our environment. Andrea Legge is a fascinating artist who, very much like Chris Jordan, puts Western consumer culture on artistic display. The New York City native earned her BFA in 1984 at the Ontario College of Art and Design in Toronto and went on to co-found the collaborative studio Legge Lewis Legge that focuses on public art and architecture.

In 2005, Legge Lewis Legge was commissioned for a temporary collaborative structure with Austin Green Art. The piece, called Cup City, was constructed over the 3-day Austin City Limits Music Festival (ACL) using a 41 rent-a-fence panels, zip ties and approximately 25,000 pieces of garbage. The dimensions of the fence’s chain link openings happen to snuggly fit the size of disposable cups and plastic bottles that are distributed at the festival. Considering the festival attracts around 60,000 people everyday, each consuming 10 times throughout the day, there are approximately 600,000 disposable cans, cups and bottles that flow through festival grounds everyday. The festival had a recycling program but a portion of the plastic bottles, cups and cans were delivered to the Cup City site in a recycling dept. There, concertgoers are encouraged to insert the cups and bottles in the chain link openings of the structures walls and ceilings. Thus, the project exhibits a small fraction of the 3 days of festival consumption.

Plan of Cup City and detail of construction method

Detail of fence and young boys participating in Cup City

Cup City uses the constant flow of discarded consumer items to supply a creative and interactive environment. While the ultimate focus was filling the chain links of the structure, numerous people spent time arranging and rearranging the cups and bottles for visual purposes. Initially the tattered appearance of the bare fence attracted minimal interaction, but once the walls began to fill, the growing ‘ornamentation’ attracted more and more passing traffic to participate and create their own panel designs. Similar to Chris Jordan’s Plastic Bottles or Caps Seurat, Cup City takes on an impressionist guise from afar, but as one draws closer to the structure they are overwhelmed by the separate pieces of trash that comprise the panels.  This idea of a pixilated abstract image up close that encompasses a different image from afar is analogous to Chuck Close’s celebrated approach to painting.

The result of participants rearranging items in a homogenous order

Cup City lit up at night

Visual patterns arranged and rearranged by participants

Conceptually, the Cup City engulfs the pressing issue of consumerism and a throwaway society. It is powerful in presenting the concertgoers with a visual perspective of how much waste they are producing in only 3 days within an enclosed festival. They become participants in the composition of Cup City by placing their own trash in the chain link openings. This relays to the reality that they too are active participants of the same issue on a global scale. In brief, “Cup City can be seen as a captivating but parasitical system momentarily amplifying and making visible too many individual pieces of mass consumption, again for better or worse, that remained solely as a result of this 3-day concert event, all the while made possible by one simple act repeated many times over; that of one hand shoving one plastic bottle through a chain link fence” (Cup City Catalogue). Check out more pictures of the overall 3-day process of Cup City here.

Sources:
http://www.andrealegge.com
http://www.andrealeggefd.com
http://leggelewislegge.com

Oil Consumption

Source: http://forexmagnates.com

There are numerous negative impacts that water bottles pose on the environment. One of the major issues is the incredible oil consumption that goes into the manufacturing of these plastic bottles. For the 29 million water bottles that Americans consume every year, 17 million barrels of crude oil is used. This doesn’t include the energy use to transport these bottles from manufacturer to consumers (I will tackle the issue of transportation in a later post – stay tuned). To put these numbers in perspective, the amount of fuel used to manufacture plastic bottles annually is the same needed to keep 1 million cars on the road for a year. Moreover, if you were to fill one quarter of a plastic water bottle with oil, you would be looking at roughly the amount used to produce that bottle!

Most water is sold in Polyethylene Terephthalate (PET) bottles, requiring 900,000 tons of the plastic. PET is produced from fossil fuels – typically natural gas and petroleum. The manufacture of every ton of PET produces around 3 tons of carbon dioxide (CO2). Bottling water thus created more than 2.5 million tons of CO2 in 2006. In addition to the water sold in plastic bottles, the Pacific Institute estimates that twice as much water was used in the production process. Thus, every liter sold represents three liters of water

Not only are we commoditizing water, a natural resource, we are wasting more water, energy, and oil in the process. If the previous posts on facts of bottled water didn’t give you enough incentive to ditch the plastic, then hopefully this will. Do your world a favour and ditch the plastic!

-M

Sources:
http://kids.nationalgeographic.com/kids/stories/spacescience/water-bottle-pollution/
http://www.pacinst.org/publication/bottled-water-and-energy-a-fact-sheet/
http://homeguides.sfgate.com/water-bottle-pollution-79179.html

Nike’s Shanghai Concept Store

Nike Shanghai Store
Source: http://www.revistaexclusiva.com

The Nike X158 Hyper Nature store in Shanghai, China is a step in the right direction in terms of increasing the value of recycled materials. The design of the interior and its fixtures are completely produced of post-consumer recycled trash. Old CDs and DVDs make up 1,000 translucent origami RiceFOLD ceiling panels and are reinforced with Rice Husk SiO2, a natural organic mechanical strengthening additive. This suspension ceiling has been designed to be adjustable to adapt to various retail setups during the course of a year. Cables and building joints are made up of recycled cans. Most importantly (for the purpose of this blog specifically), 2,000 yards of tension cables were made using 2,000 post-consumer recycled water bottles gathered all across China. According to the designers, no glue was used to reinforce any elements, making the entire plan 100% recyclable. In total, 5,500 soda cans, 2,000 PET water bottles and 50,000 CDs and DVDs were utilized in the interior of the space, which was completed in July of this year.

Nike Shanghai Store
Source: http://www.thekevinpoon.com

Miniwiz is an architectural firm based in Taiwan and is responsible for this remarkable venture. They are a platform for radical trash engineering, dedicated to sustainable solutions through the three R’s: Reuse, Reduce and Recycle. Their products include Pollibricks, a wall system made up of 100% recycled PET, and Natrillon, a fiber made with 100% recycled PET bottles. The Nike concept store is only on of their numerous achievements in environmental design. The completion of the EcoARK Pavilion in Taipei, Taiwan is built out of 1.5 million recycled plastic bottles. It is said to weigh half than that of a conventional building the same size, while strong enough to withstand natural disasters such as earthquakes and even fires!  Check out their website for more projects made up of 100% trash.

Miniwiz is currently looking for partners in the US. Their mission and sustainable design expertise can provide a positive solution to the excessive consumer trash that is a major issue in North America and the rest of the Western world.

Sources:
http://www.sustainablebrands.com/news_and_views/retail_innovation/nike’s-new-shanghai-store-100-rubbish
http://inhabitat.com/new-nike-concept-store-in-shanghai-is-made-entirely-from-trash/nike-shanghai-trash-5/
http://www.miniwiz.com

The Pros and Cons of Glass Water Bottles

Source: http://kellysthoughtsonthings.com

As the point of this blog is to inform the readers (you!) of the negative effects of plastic water bottles, it seems only fitting to inform you on alternative and, more importantly, REUSABLE water bottles. Glass water bottles are quickly popping up everywhereas various brands pick up on the growing trend, but just how sustainable is this alternative? Without doubt more than plastic bottles, but I think it’s necessary to shed light on the negative aspects of glass water bottles as well as the numerous positives.

Lets start with the positive features of glass water bottles:

1. Glass is bishphenol A (BPA) free, an industrial chemical used in some plastics an in the protective coatings that line the inside of some metallic beverage containers.
2. Glass is non-permeable and won’t absorb color and odor
3. Water simply tastes better in a glass
4. It is longer lasting and can be washed repeatedly while maintaining its shape, durability and cleanliness.
5. From an aesthetic point of view, they are sleek, stylish and are a favorite amongst trendy artisans.
6. Unlike plastic, which is “down-cycled” (meaning it is recycled into other products and every new bottle you purchase is made from new plastic), glass can be recycled over and over again, meaning you can buy a recycled glass water bottle. Also, this reduces the energy in producing new glass bottles.
7. Although the initial cost of a glass water bottle is high, it saves you money over time
8. It is multifunctional – used for cold or hot water (for all you tea lovers)
9. Glass effectively maintains the temperature of your water, whether your sipping on ice cold water or hot tea

Negative aspects of glass water bottles:

1. The danger of broken glass has prompted many gyms, yoga studios and other places to ban glass bottles
2. Due to its easy breakability, it has a shorter life span if your clumsy like me
3. Manufacturing a glass bottle causes similar carbon emissions as a PET plastic bottle to its heavier mass
4. Like plastic, not all glass is recyclable and the recycling rate is pretty low

Source: http://www.greenivyed.com

Source: http://www.mattberkowitz.com

Different glass water bottle brands have their own pros and cons so it is helpful to do your research before buying. For example, some designs feature silicone or bamboo bodies for grip and strength (bamboo bottle and LifeFactory). Others have double walls that further maintain the temperature of the water and some even have built in strainers if you choose to drink tea on the go. In brief, glass water bottles are a much better choice over plastic water bottles in terms of sustainability for its recyclability and reusability, as well as its design and cleanliness. 

-M