Environmental Graffiti

It’s no secret that our obsession with plastic bottles is turning into a bit of an environmental crisis, and no wonder, in the US alone 70 million bottles are purchased every day, yet only a measly 10 million are recycled. So, it’s good to see someone doing something useful with the bottles instead of adding to the giant mounds of garbage threatening to suffocate the planet.

Artist Jasmine Zimmerman has created a translucent sun dome from hundreds of empty recycled bottles, and intends to travel through various boroughs of New York with it to spread the word about reusing and recycling.

Jasmine says, “This year, Americans will drink more than 30 billion single-serving bottles of water. In the course of our busy lives this year, we will throw out more than two million tons of polyethylene terephthalate plastic bottles – an unintended byproduct of our everyday convenience.”

The aims of the bottle house are simple:

• To serve the communities of New York after the festival, traveling to various locations, bringing the garden to the people.
• To build community through a social, educational collective exchange in the creative process.
• To transform and repurpose an overlooked material that harms our planet and environment into one that will grow vegetation.

The Bottle House was on show at Seattle’s Music and Art Festival, Bumbershoot 2008, which ran from 31 August to 1 September this year.

Source 1, 2

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