Bottles vs. Barrels...

So as the title of this post implies, today we're going to be talking about the pros and cons of water bottles versus 55 gallon barrels for the flotation of the raft.  

The original idea was to use water bottles to float the raft.  I was inspired by a guy named "Rishi" Sowa. He lives on an floating island that he made from empty plastic bottles in Mexico.

This video gives you more insight into Mr. Sowa's island.  There are lots more YouTube videos if you're interested.

While researching we discovered that 55 gallon barrels would work too and since we had a local source, we decided they were the perfect solution for our raft floatation.  They can hold a lot more weight than water bottles and take a lot less time to collect!  Using bottles and netting could also have been a pollution issue if one of the nets came open while out in the lake.  In a matter of seconds, bottles would have been everywhere and instead of being a solution to the problem, we would have been causing one.  

Why Repurpose?

Here's what the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences has to say. http://kids.niehs.nih.gov/explore/reduce/index.htm

Reduce, Reuse, Recycle — Three great ways YOU can eliminate waste and protect your environment!

Waste, and how we choose to handle it, affects our world's environment—that's YOUR environment. The environment is everything around you including the air, water, land, plants, and man-made things. And since by now you probably know that you need a healthy environment for your own health and happiness, you can understand why effective waste management is so important to YOU and everyone else. The waste we create has to be carefully controlled to be sure that it does not harm your environment and your health.  

What exactly is "waste?"

Waste is anything we throw away or get rid of, that doesn’t get used.

How can you help?

You can help by learning about and practicing the three R's of waste management: Reduce, reuse, and recycle! Practicing all three of these activities every day is not only important for a healthy environment, but it can also be fun too. 

You can "reuse" materials in their original form instead of throwing them away, or pass those materials on to others who could use them too! Remember, one man's trash is another man's treasure!