My ongoing MA project’s area of research is sustainability and sustainable design. I went a long way from researching into “eco package design” to ending up at the importance of the message that we communicate through our design.

 

I started looking at plastic water bottles. Besides the fact that we actually can drink tap water (or filtered tap water) instead of buying the bottled one we are generating loads of plastic waste without even thinking about it. However I think it’s one of those examples when the source of the problem can be a medium for communicating the message about the problem. Think of the disclaimer on the pack of cigarettes. However my idea is a softer way of conveying the message.

 

I think it’s about time we admit all that those icons, logos, notes on the packaging is not working the way it should. They are seen only by the consumers already aware of the whole sustainability thing. Other people don’t even notice those small signs. (In fact all this recycle-reduce-reuse symbols are most of the times  printed the way you need to look for them.

 

This bottle is a way to deliver a message about the importance of recycling or the way this bottle harms the environment or even the way of how this bottle can be reused, etc. There is no way this product can exist on our market. Or there is? I invite you to think of the message a simple plastic bottle can communicate.

 

Tweet your message mentioning @this_bottle and view your “product” on http://alexeygolev.com/this_bottle.

 

Notes

This project started from the idea of receiving the information and putting it into my book (that is the actual outcome of the project). However I decided to share it with people. So I tweaked my processing code that deals with getting/processing tweets so it can upload everything to the website all in real time.

 

Thus “This bottle” is “alive” only when my computer is awake and running the code. This bottle may seem like a 100% sustainable product. However it is not. It consumes energy to run the code. I’m funding “This bottle” project by paying for the electricity for my computer to run, my internet service and the amount of coffee I need to stay up until 8am each night.

 

I really appreciate your help. This project is more than just a student brief for me. That’s the first step in my ethical design journey.

 

Thank you.