Bottled motivation to recycle

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Plastic bottles have generated a lot of bad press for drinks manufacturers over the last few months. To counteract this bad publicity and deliver an aesthetic way of making people think about the waste they create, Pepsi teamed up with a group of young artists to design a sculpture out of old plastic bottles to inspire people in India to recycle.

Over 1 billion people live in India and many are not sufficiently educated about recycling to know the damage that plastics do to the environment - most do not even know the difference between what to throw in degradable and non-degradable bins. Its recycled sculpture served as visual reminder to Indians of the 80 billion tones of waste they produce each year.

It took 7 hours for a group of young artists to create the sculpture out of 6,500 old Pepsi cans and plastic bottles. Initially, the mound of bottles appeared to take an entirely abstract shape, but, once completed, spotlights were shone on the structure and its silhouette formed a ‘beautiful world’ vista on the white wall behind – an idyllic scene with palm trees and wild animals. Onlookers were encouraged to show their allegiance to recycling by signing on the wall and a video of the day was posted on YouTube to ensure Pepsi’s message of recycling gained maximum exposure.

More than 15,000 people watched the event live and another 50,000 have since watched it online. 11,345 vowed to make recycling a way of life by signing on the wall and 7,331 registered with Pepsi’s dedicated website on the spot. Many more have joined up to the ‘Recycle For A Beautiful World’ online communities set up by Pepsi. With its sculpture with the drinks manufacturer achieved its objective of making people think about their waste in an innovative and visual way.

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