BOTTLED WASTE

HAL WATTS

How much energy goes into creating a 1 litre bottle of water? On average, its ‘embodied’ energy is up around the 5 megajoule mark - this is more than 1,000 times the energy embodied in a litre of tap water. Consisting of a series of gearings, a small pump and a brake, Bottled Waste attempts to make this issue tangible by making visitors supply the energy required to produce a litre of either bottled or tap water. The user must turn the pump handle for approximately 3 hours to pump one litre of bottled water, meaning that they will have supplied the amount of energy embodied in that bottled water. By moving a clutch and the handle, the pump can be set to tap water mode. It pumps faster and the brake is disengaged meaning that the user can pump a litre in under 20 minutes, using 1,000 times less energy.