Consider this: When you are buying your next piece of bottled water you are joining the ranks of one million others around the world buying plastic drinking bottles every minute!
Now consider this: Globally, we use a whopping 5 trillion single-use plastic bags every year. As we speak, we produce about 300 million tonnes of plastic waste every year. Which is, now hold your breath, nearly equivalent to the weight of the entire human population!
In the United States, the largest consumer market on earth with a GDP of $20 trillion and 325 million people, only 30% of these bottles are recycled. Across the Atlantic, Norway recycles up to 97%.
Have we thought about it: Bottled water consumes up to 2,000 times the energy used to produce tap water!
There is more: Enough plastic is disposed of every year to circle the Earth as many as four times. Americans alone throw away 35 billion plastic bottles annually!
Now look at this: How many plastic water bottles do our oceans contain? Every year, 8 million metric tonnes of plastic find their way in the oceans — and that’s equivalent to five grocery bags filled with plastic for every foot of coastline in the world! Shocked? Now consider this: In 2025, the annual input is expected to be about twice greater — put that at about 10 bags full of plastic per foot of coastline.
Now, will there be fish in 2050 in our oceans? Worrying, right? Marine experts say that we would be able to catch maybe an additional 10 million metric tonnes of fish in 2050, if, only if, we manage our waste diligently.
Now, why are plastic bottles bad: Plastic bottles are made from PET (Polyethylene Terephthalate) polymer. In fact, from its creation to disposal, these bottles are deadly polluters. Many of the chemicals used in their production keep leaching out into air and into the water they hold. Plastic bottles contain Bisphenol A (BPA), the chemical that makes plastic hard and clear. BPA is a potent endocrine disruptor that is hazardous to human health.
Given this, many brand campaigns have taken on the civilizational hazard that plastic spells. One of the latest ones that became a viral sensation earlier this week sends out pretty spine-chilling message.
Liquid Death, the American canned water maker, launched a campaign while holding a gun to its own head saying it better be damned if it was going to let single-use plastics turn the planet into a living hellhole, perhaps even threatening to spill into the netherworld.
In the film, plastic bottles have now begun to overwhelm the Hades, choking the sulphuric seas and the “three-headed demon fish” and a medley of ghastly looking beasts.
“It’s polluting our 2,000-year-old torture pits, ruining the fun for everyone,” the devil says.
“There’s a lot of heart-wrenching messaging about the impacts of plastic pollution,” Liquid Death CEO and co-founder Mike Cessario, a former Netflix executive, was reported as telling Muse. “We don’t want to bring down anyone’s day. Instead, we’re sharing our message and spreading awareness in a fun, creative way,” he added.
The 90-second spot stars Stacy Kaney as the four-horned diabolical top boss of Hell with a particular predilection for turning human brains into snakes and producing gothic haute-couture.
This month, Liquid Death plans to start its “Keep the Underworld Beautiful” marketing campaign that will include video ads bearing the brand’s sustainability message. Earlier, the company had promoted the benefits of recyclable aluminium packaging with its “Death to Plastic” slogan. Liquid Death donates a portion of its proceeds to non-profits 5 Gyres and Thirst Project that are working towards reducing plastic pollution.
Cessario told Business Insider that while many brands have ridden on guilt to encourage consumers to recycle, the goal of Liquid Death’s campaign was to make sustainability “exciting and engaging”.
“My point of view is if you truly want change to happen you have to make the change fun,” he said. “People have enough stuff to worry about. They don’t want to see your depressing ad guilting them into change and they don’t want to bum their friends and family out by sharing something that’s really sad that with them. We want people to be excited about it. We want people to wear a ‘Death to Plastic’ t-shirt and get behind the cause and make it fun.”
