As a (C3) project team member, our project is to help recycle water bottles and to prevent them from entering the waste stream by collecting the water bottles, and encouraging others to do the same, for the 2007 Air and Water Show.

Project Title: Water Bottles

C3, Chicago Conservation Corp liaison: Joyce Coffee
The 49th Annual Chicago Air and Water Show shakes up the
lakefront August 18-19, 2007 for the “LARGEST” FREE show of it’s kind in the United States. The Chicago Air and Water Show is our city’s second most popular festival. Last year, 3,640,000 people went to the Taste of Chicago while 2,200,000 watched the Chicago Air and Water Show. (If you take into account that the 2005 Taste of Chicago lasted 11 days while the Chicago Air and Water Show lasts only two days, the difference in attendance is really minimal.)

The main goal for this project is to recycle water bottles. Water bottles have a huge impact during the show. Literally every single person who attends the show will be drinking from a water bottle, and or plastic bottle.

Worldwide sales of bottled water are estimated to be between $50 and $100 billion (US) annually and increasing approximately 7 to 10 percent annually. In 2004, the US bottled water industry surpassed 6.8 Billion gallons of water for that year, an increase of 8.6% over the previous year (Beverage Marketing Corporation, 2005).

The consumption of over 150 billion liters of bottled water per year necessitates the use of billions of plastic and glass bottles. Though the materials used are generally recyclable, many of these bottles, particularly those used in developing countries without recycling infrastructure, are discarded rather than recycled, with this trash having a negative effect on the environment.

The general public should put their water bottles, or plastic bottles in the appropriate bins. The Chicago Street and Sanitation will help provide our team with Plastic Bins, or blue bags (Recyclables Only) on the day of the event to HELP KEEP OUR CITY CLEAN!

We need volunteers to collect bottles people have tossed on the beach, salvage bottles from regular trash, and tell people to recycle as we see them drinking. The community should be educated about the recycling infrastructure of recycled materials, especially water bottles. Given those efforts, especially those that are involved should be rewarded for their hard work. People wanting to contribute in any way they can, help our city, the environment, and all of us. If together we can all encourage others to participate and allow ourselves to be inspired, then we can achieve our goals.

Target Location: North Ave Beach

Anyone interested in joining our team in keeping our city clean, please email us at mgracedesigns@sbcglobal.net. We will provide C3 – Chicago Conservation Corp T-shirts on the day of the event.

M. Grace Sielaff