“A million plastic bottles” that is how many single-use plastic bottles are sold globally EVERY SINGLE MINUTE. This number is likely to jump up another 20% in the next year. Out of the million bottles purchased a minute, less than half gets recycled. The rest end up in the environment, landfills or our oceans, creating an environmental crisis.

I wanted to shine a light on this statistic and for residents in the UAE to view two ways that water can reach their homes. The first through our pipes and the second through plastic bottles that we bring into our homes. I wanted people to look at their daily water usage and what effects that had on their health and that of the environment, and to ask themselves: Am I adding to the problem or the solution?

The piece was designed and donated for the Surge For Water Design, Dine and Make a Difference Gala. The piece, a multi-functional furniture piece can be a chaise longue chair when putting all three pieces together. It can also transform into two chairs and a table when taken apart. The chaise longue also has the option of being lit up. The lighting shining through the water, creates beautiful water shadows making you feel like you are floating on the water.

The piece won me the Highly Commended award and was praised by the judges for bringing people’s focus to the problem of plastic bottles.

Title: “A Million Bottles Per Minute 1 (edition 5 of 5)

Dimensions: 450mm x 900mm x 2000mm*

Medium: Water Bottles,steel, acrylic and pillow.

About the author, Mariska

Hi and welcome! My name is Mariska. I am originally from South Africa, but now call the world my home. I am an artist, designer, environmentalist, podcast host and speaker.

I started the Mama Earth Talk podcast in 2018 to share some of the things that I learned about just how easy it can be to reduce your impact on the environment. This then quickly grew into a forum that showcases the amazing things that many people are doing to make the planet better, and further into a source of hope and inspiration for many. A few of the amazing guests include Zero Waste Queen, Bea Johnson, Claude Silver, Kathryn Kellogg and zero waste chef Max La Manna.

If you do not already I urge you to follow me and my journey on social media (@designbymariska), and to refuse, reduce, reuse, recycle and rot your own waste using the handy tips I post!