Elizabeth Royte and her book Garbage Land were among my first and favorite discoveries as a garblogger. On Valentine’s day, it seems appropriate to share this recent piece she did for medium.com on “Sex, trash and nature in the city.”
My favorite thing about this article is that Royte reserves her judgement for the littering, but not the public lovemaking, that goes on in our beloved Prospect Park.
One of my favorite things about working in Ethiopia this week has been enjoying the lovely local mineral water. At home, I’m an advocate of tap water and DIY bubbles, but on the road when unknown organisms are a fear, it’s really nice to see water that is a) local, b) delicious and c) bottled in glass. Mmm, Ambo.
Ambo Water from Ethiopia
Consider this a second reminder to watch The Story of Bottled Water.
And to read Bottlemania: How Water Went on Sale and Why We Bought It.
Both gems.
Thirteen thousand, six hundred and ninety-nine people die each day from preventable diseases related to water. Artist Christine Destrempes decided to represent this daily loss of human life by stringing together 13,699 clear plastic bottle caps and arranging them in a powerful installation.
13,699
According to the artist:
The choice of using plastic bottle caps calls attention to other related environmental issues surrounding bottled water, such as privatization, depletion of aquifers, the environmental impact of plastic waste, the use of fossil fuels in making plastic, the carbon footprint of shipping bottled water, and the leaching of plastic into our water sources. Purchasing bottled water turns a basic human right into a commodity, affecting access for people in developing countries, as well as here in the United States.
Photos of the actual installation are available here. Thanks to Elizabeth Royte—author of the must-read Bottlemania: How Water Went on Sale and Why We Bought It—for the informaiton on this project.
Bottlemania author Elizabeth Royte‘s waste and water blog has been pretty juicey lately. When it comes to single serving water packaged in plastic, the only thing more disturbing than how many plastic bottles are out there is how few people own them. That is, until they sell them to us and the problem of disposing of them becomes someone else’s problem. The question up for debate is whose problem is it? New York’s State Assembly is negociating the answer to that question now with a bottle bill that Royte points out has taken 20 years to see the light of day. But if you’ve been reading the news, you might have noticed that an unlikely pair have teamed up to sue the state over the bill: megaconglomerate Nestle and Riverkeeper Bobby Kennedy Jr. Very curious. Royte explains the drama in a recent post and subsequent update.
See also RFK Jr.’s op-ed in yesterday’s New York Times.
everydaytrash 