Project rRaft - Building a Raft out of Water Bottles

Step 3 Bottle Processing

Bottles aren't quite fit for sailing as soon as you get them: we don't want the labels peeling off in the water and polluting them, nor do we want the bit of water still in the bottles weighting us down. Time to settle down for a bagging day!

First, all the bottles are dumped onto the floor, and I sit down and cut off each and every label. This needs to be done so that they don't come off in the water...pollution is bad. Once the label is off, each bottle's contents is emptied into a Gatorade bottle (One is picked out from the pile) because most water bottles still have a bit of water left in them, and every bit of buoyancy counts! Gatorade is the bottle of choice because they have large mouths, making them easy targets (and spill resistant) along with higher volume capacities than most water bottles. Bottles from juice, soda, or sports drinks need to be rinsed out, so they are separated as they go through initial processing.

After the entire cache of labeled bottles is exhausted, the non-water bottles are taken to the bathroom and washed out. If any water bottles were partially full, that water is used before sink water. The bottles are then taken back to be assimilated into the general bottle population.

Now it's time for the counting! Kitchen garbage bags are retrieved, and 50 bottles are deposited into each one. Full bags are thrown into the vacant tree house out back, and the surplus bottles (< 50) are left in a laundry hamper, eagerly awaiting the next bagging day. Lastly, the final tally of bottles is recorded.