Bottled water is shipped to our schools and communities in many shapes, sizes and brands to satisfy the thirsty masses. Unfortunately many people don’t think about the garbage produced and energy wasted when drinking bottled water. The Pacific Institute estimates that the energy required to produce, ship and cool one bottle of water is equal to filling that bottle a quarter full with oil! To open eyes in your school or community build a life sized sculpture out of water bottles to help kick-off an awareness campaign.
Bottle Sculpture 101
Time: Prep ~ 4-6 months
Cost: $50.00
Grade Range: 5-12 (depending on difficulty)
Target: Whole School
Note: Click HERE to get a copy of our Energy Shift Checklist to help guide your team through the project.
Step 1 ~ Permission:
Before start collecting bottles, ask your administration for permission to run your awareness campaign in a prominent school location.
Step 2 ~ Collection:
To build your sculpture you’ll need lots of bottles! To create a sculpture that is two meters tall, collect at least 500 bottles. Collection takes a few months so start this project early in the year and designate a room as the drop-off location for all bottles. To speed up collection, recruit students who help with recycling and have them pick out bottles before emptying bins. Also, remind students periodically that you are collecting the bottles; it’s up to you whether you keep the reason a surprise!
Step 3 ~ Research:
As your bottles start to pile up research information on bottled water to use in your awareness campaign. Outside of energy usage and waste production areas of research could include health, ecological and societal impacts. For a great start go to the Polaris Institute’s website: insidethebottle.org
Step 4 ~ Design: 
Work as a group to decide on the scale of your sculpture and the necessary materials. To determine the scale, just measure the height and diameter of a water bottle and use the ratio to find your sculpture size. For materials you’ll need bottles, a plywood base, a dowel attached to centre of the base for stability, stiff chicken wire to keep the shape, nails and paper for additional details. Some additional details include a bottle label and cap. Think about what you want your label to say, create a strong statement that highlights your main message or give some key water facts. Not skilled in construction? This is a great opportunity to get other groups involved in eco-action, so ask around for design input from art and/or tech students and teachers.
Step 5 ~ Plan:
Once you know how you’re going to build your giant bottle, think about how you want to launch it. Ideas include placing the bottle at the front of the school with posters, pairing the sculpture launch with a fundraiser selling stainless steel water bottles and/or holding a bottled water taste test comparing bottled to tap. Within your plan, create a regular building schedule for bottle builders to meet up and construct so your sculpture is ready on time.
Step 6 ~ Build!:
To start off rinse out all of your bottles, while they are drying out use a nail or screw to attach the dowel to the centre of the plywood base. Next, create a cylinder of the appropriate height out of your chicken wire. To close the cylinder twist the open ends of the chicken wire together using pliers. Then use your nails to attach the chicken wire to the plywood base with the dowel. Make sure the chicken wire is secure as this will be the foundation for your sculpture. Now use some more chicken wire to create the top of your bottle. Be creative here and just make sure the base of the top has the same diameter as the rest of the bottle so you can easily connect them. Before attaching your bottle top, fill the base cylinder with empty plastic bottles. Once you’ve put in as many as you can, use pliers to attach the top of the bottle. Your sculpture is almost complete, now you just need to add details like a label and cap! These can be easily made out of paper and attached to your sculpture using tape, wire and/or string.
Step 7 ~ Launch: 
Once the bottle is complete put your awareness plan into action! A popular event held at Loretto was a bottled water taste test. After learning about the energy impacts of drinking bottled water, students where given a chance to try different types of water. They then chose their favorite and each response was noted on a graph near the bottle sculpture to chart the results.
