Deeposits
artistic intervention: collecting and returning refundable bottles underwater to fund sustainability.
How I became a deposit diver
After an online dispute about the proposed EU ban of single-use disposable plastic, I went snorkeling at the Kulkwitzer and found a bunch of disposable tableware. So I collected it and continued my dive finding more objects that do not belong in a lake. Some of these were plastic bottles and/or refundable bottles. At Makerfaire Berlin the team of mifactori
presented the PET palace project. Many people asked us about the value of the installation because we removed the labels of the bottles. Because in Germany, you can only return plastic bottles with an intact label but glass bottles are recognized by the machines using shape and weight. So, this makes plastic bottles lose their return value much easier but glass bottle can go back into the system even after years underwater.
For me, this activity combines what I love: snorkeling, exploring, treasure hunting and helping the ecosystem. Besides that, I make money to fund to the OSCE Days 2019.
Goals
- have fun
- explore
- find awesome stuff
- get stupid rich … well maybe
- try creating an open campaign/project
- document everything
Social Media Profiles
https://www.instagram.com/deeposits/
How it is done
1. Gear
- diving goggles
- snorkel
- fins
- equipment / collection
- go pro hero3 (lent from an @expanding-focus) to document
- with custom grip including 2 scrunchies found at expediton1
- diving bag + carabiner hook + big plastic container as buoy and collection station
2. Places
House lake Kulkiwitzer See Leipzig one of the best diving lakes in Germany. The clear water makes it much easy to cover a lot of ground.
On tour so far
- Schlachtensee Berlin
- Rhine River Basel
- quarry lake Leipzig
- Walensee Switzerland
3. Search and collect
I mostly look for unusual shapes and colors. The color leads to plastic trash as most bottle colors blend it. Any kind of net is useful to store the objects. I use my diving bag to store what I find because going back to the shore takes too much time. Also underwater storing will lead to some items floating away.
4. Clean
- Remove mussels and other sea life that might have grown on the object on the place where you find.
- Clean the bottle on site, many are full of sediments that should stay where they are.
- Before returning the bottle make sure it is as clean as a bottle you would normally return. If that is not possible put it into glass recycling.
5. Return
- cash in refundable bottles (only clean enough ones)
- put the glass bottles into the recycling
- plastics and other unusable material right now I put in the trash bins at the lake
- keep any useful stuff that you found
6. Document
It started an Instagram Deeposits where I will post for now. I link this post to provide information and draw people to the forum.
Hashtags: I will use #take3forthesea #PickUp3 #deeposit … right now searching for more, any input is very welcome
I am planning to use Buffer or something similar to post regularly on multiple platforms.
Slogan first ideas
- go deep & do good
- go deep, find stuff, have fun
Social Media
- I started taking pictures on expedition2 on 7 June and expedition3 on June 9
- then I started choosing the picture
- the real documentation start with this post on 10 June
- I work on the picture and set up the social media page after work to be able to release everything before the OSCE days in Berlin where I will present Deeposits
Pictures
- for the pictures I recommend the Go Pro Mode that take multiple pictures at once because it is hard to be steady underwater. But usually, I set it to 3 in 0.5 secs a one comes out fine,
- Time consumption: choosing and cropping the picture takes a lot of time for me. For the first Videos it was ok because I did only minimal edits for the first one.
Expeditions
So far, most in the east shore area of the Kulkwitzer See
Season 1 2018
1 Kulkwitzer See Leipzig
- June 2018
Here I got the idea and didn’t have a camera to document with me.
Outcome:
- 6 returnable glass bottles
- 2 glass bottles
- 1 plastic bottle
- some plastic waste including about 8 pieces of disposable tableware
Notable Objects
- a small garden shovel perfect for my balcony planting
- 2 scrunchies used for securing the camera
- a nice sock acting as go pro transport protection
Cash: 48 cents
2 Kulkwitzer See Leipzig
- June 2018
- 1 refundable plastic bottle still with the label
- 1 refundable beer can
- 3 refundable glass bottles only, one will make its ways OSCE Days #berlin
- 7 glass bottles
- 1 can
- a small bag full of plastic mostly packaging
- a metal grid
- a broken dog toy
Cash: 66 cents
3 & 3.5 Kulkwitzer See Leipzig
- June 2018
- 3 returnable glass bottles
- 1 big glass bottle that somebody put on a tree
Notable Objects
- some toys for Fritz
- a fishing lure
- some mean broken bottles
- a big intact plastic water container
Cash: 24 cents
4 Schlachtensee Berlin
16.06.2018
at the OSCEdays Berlin
- 10 bottles with deposit
- 4 glass bottles
- some plastic
Notable Objects
- a full beer
Cash: 80 cents
5 Kulkwitzer See Leipzig
29.06.2018
- mostly plastic and other trash
Notable Objects
- a bar stool
Cash: 0 cents
6 Kulkwitzer See Leipzig
15.07.2018
- 1 glass bottle
- a big pile of plastic trash
Notable Objects
- a construction site lamp
- a big plastic basket
- an old egg, but we did put it back
Cash: 8 cents
7 Kulkwitzer See Leipzig
21.07.2018
- 7 glass bottles
- broken glass
- plastic
Notable Objects
- 2 matching socks
Cash: 32 cents
8 Quarry lake Leipzig
06.08.2018
- old glass bottles
- cans
- plastic
Notable Objects
- a heavy metal sink
Cash: 0 cents
9 Rhine Basel
10.08.2018
- 4 glass bottles
- cans
- plastic
Notable Objects
- 2 full beers
- a large white towel
Cash: 0 cents
10 Lake Walen (Walensee) Switzerland
16.08.2018
- no underwater finds only picking up shore trash
Cash: 0 cents
11 Kulkwitzer See Leipzig
11.09.2018
the biggest find so far clearly
- 11 glass bottles
- many cans
- big pile of plastic
Notable Objects
- 2 car tires
- bike tire
- bike front part
- car license plate from Nuremberg
Cash: 73 cents
12 Kulkwitzer See Leipzig
16.09.2018
- 2 bottles with deposit
- some bottles
- some plastic
Cash: 16 cents
13 Kulkwitzer See Leipzig
20.09.2018
- 9 bottles with deposit and a can with deposit
- 7 glass bottles
- some mean glass shards
- a lot of plastic
- many cans
Notable Objects
- a bowling ball
- motorbike parts
- a camping broken camping chair
Cash: 89 cents
Season 2 2019
14 Kulkwitzer See Leipzig
02.06.2018
- 6 bottles with deposit and a can with deposit
- 2 glass bottles
- 2 plastic bottles
- a little plastic
Cash: 48 cents
15 Kulkwitzer See Leipzig
06.06.2018
- 9 bottles with deposit
- 1 plastic bottle
- 1 big glass shard
- 2 old aluminum cans
- some plastic
Notable Objects
- 4kg of diving weights
- a towel
Sightings
- a big catfish around 1m long
Cash: 72 cents
16 Kulkwitzer See Leipzig
12.06.2018
- non of the usual bottles or trash (first time in Kulki)
Notable Objects
- tire (3rd in Kulki)
- big very rusty bowl
- toy on the shore
Sightings
- we touched and spotted an eel that was living in the tire
Cash: 0 cents
17 Kulkwitzer See Leipzig
14.06.2018
- no bottles or can
- a lot of plastic trash
- a glove
Sightings
- 2 crayfish one lived in the glove, the other in a plastic champagne glass
- many big fish at a underwater diver training platform
Cash: 0 cents
18 Kulkwitzer See Leipzig
.06.2018
- 1 plastic Deeposits bottle
- a lot of plastic
- 1 can
Notable Objects
- a pacifier
Sightings
- a diving Great Crested Grebe (Haubentaucher)
Cash: 25 cents
19 Kulkwitzer See Leipzig
22.06.2018
- 5 bottles with deposit
- 1 can with deposit
- 6 glass bottles
- 5 glass shards from broken bottles
- 1 plastic bottle
- some plastic
- many cans
- a big plastic sheet
Notable Objects
- a football
- a big plastic canister
- a working thermometer
- a tar bucket
Sightings
- we discovered an under water staircase with many fish
- a diving baby Great Crested Grebe (Haubentaucher)
- many small fish
Cash: 65 cents
Expeditions 20 - 3
not yet documented please see Deeposits Instagram for the outcome
Account Balance 29th of September 2019: 9,44 €
this post is a work in progress I am still busy with editing and uploading all the photos
Getting involved
- Help me improve this post, mainly the language
- follow and share, help me share it, give tips for hashtags
- Get wet and DiCoReDo: Dive Collect Return Document, post what you find here and on social media using the same hashtags
- provide feedback
- Do an expedition! Get wet, find stuff, cash in & document.
Press
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- September 2018 Deeposits in German national radio Deutschlandfunk Nova Grünstreifen
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- October 2018 WDR Markt Facebook Video
- October 2018 Bild Leipzig
License for pictures
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.