6/6/2006: Empty Gatorade bottles across the Charles

Thanks xoB. Recycling is important, and recycling plastic bottles is hard. That's why you've gotta hand it to this enterprising pair of gents, who noticed that if they saved all their empty Gatorades for a year...



And tied them all together with duct tape...



It would form a seaworthy raft and they could paddle across the Charles River.



And so they did. As accomplishments go, it doesn't rank up there with curing a disease or writing a great novel. And it's been done many times before with different raw materials. "Oh sure," you think, "I thought of that years ago, I could have done that, easily." But you didn't, huh?

Their full page has 68 photos, out of which these are only four, so it documents the whole event much better than I do.

Undertoad wrote:

Recycling is important, and recycling plastic bottles is hard.

Recycling is hard? The why was this article in the WSJ today?

WSJ wrote:

Missing milk crates used to wind up in college dormitories as bins for clothes, books and CDs. Today pilfered crates -- as well as pallets, bakery trays and other containers made from a pricey high-density plastic resin -- are going into grinders in recycling plants, say dairy and soft-drink industry loss-prevention officials and police. As oil prices have climbed, so too have prices for the petroleum-based resin used in milk crates, pallets and other such items. Prices of the resin jumped more than 40% after Hurricane Katrina, rising to 87.50 cents per pound in November, according to Plastics News. Today prices are hovering in the 70 cents-per-pound range, nearly double the price just three years ago.

Not that the raft isn't cool n'all. :right:

After drinking 90 gallons of Gatorade, I wonder how much of that water they made? :rolleyes:

boy you wouldn't want the duct tape to let go mid row.

Too bad Alcatraz is no longer used as a prison.

i could do that i just dont wanna

Umm, what's up w/ all the asian babes?

Morons. If they'd duct taped together 1 years worth of Cheetos bags they would have been able to make a sail and not have had to row.

richlevy wrote:

Morons. If they'd duct taped together 1 years worth of Cheetos bags they would have been able to make a sail and not have had to row.

And if they saved all their farts in that helium ballon from the other thread they could have, well they probably would have blown themselves up.

What good are blow pop sticks? :yum:

footfootfoot wrote:

Umm, what's up w/ all the asian babes?

It's MIT.

footfootfoot wrote:

Umm, what's up w/ all the asian babes?

The idea came to them at a bukake party?

My favorite part is where they are going for a test run of the MIT Chapel's reflecting pool.

with the money they spent on gatorade, they could have bought a damn boat.

Yes, but you pretty much have to buy those all at once, rather than a buck here, and a buck there ...