Plastic Water Bottle Afterlife

A few days ago I saw empty water bottles, which were filled with air, being used as floats on fishing nets. At the time I thought it was an interesting and resourceful re-use of a product.

It struck me as odd that these bottles floating in the river seemed like more pollution than if “proper” buoys had been used. Why does one form of air-filled plastic (the bottles) seem more like pollution than another (buoys)? The bottles at least had multiple uses in their product lifetime, unlike products designed to be buoys.

Today I saw a water-filled plastic bottle being used to hold down a sign in the air!

The yin and yang of  disposable water bottle use has been revealed.

Air-filled bottle used as a float in water.

Water-filled bottle used as a weight in air.