Eco-Art Installation: 1500 Water Bottles=1 Second of Consumption

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
(Free-Press-Release.com) May 28, 2009 -- I’d like to share a story about “Watershed” (http://www.mslk.com/watershed), an eco-art installation made out of 1500 plastic water bottles, designed by MSLK (http://www.mslk.com) a New York City-based graphic design agency.

In the past decade, the bottled water industry has grown immensely and so have its repercussions. Watershed was developed in an effort to get the public to rethink choosing bottled water when we have the best quality drinking water coming right from our taps. Consisting of 1,500 empty bottles collected from the New York City area, the installation will visualize 1 second of US consumption. Watershed will be displayed at the Figment Art Festival (http://figmentnyc.org) on Governors Island in New York City from June 12th-14th.

In an interview, MSLK partners Sheri L Koetting and Marc S Levitt are available to discuss the creative process and goals of the project further, as well as facts that have been compiled for the exhibit, such as:

• Out of the 50 billion bottles of water being bought each year, 80% end up in a landfill.
• Because plastic does not fully biodegrade, waste patches have been contaminating our oceans, the largest of which is called The Great Pacific Garbage Patch and is the size of Texas.

• 17 million barrels of oil are used in producing bottled water each year.
• Bottled water costs 1,000 times more than tap water. Drinking 2 Liters of tap water a day only costs 50 cents per year.
• Plastic leaches toxins into the water, which have been linked to health problems such as reproductive issues and cancer.
• New York City tap water surpasses all federal and state health standards.
• Given the current environmental and economic situations at hand, it is important now more than ever to not waste money on such a harmful product, the consumption of which has become a worldwide epidemic.

To view a video of the assembly in progress, please visit:
http://vimeo.com/4841393