In February I took pictures of a Fiji water bottle littered after a few sips drunk, despite water fountains within a few steps. Someone paid to extract oil, refine it into plastic, use it to ship water—WATER!—around the world, so they could drink a few sips and pollute our world with the plastic.

That post was Disgusting and totally unnecessary. Pure pollution, no benefit. Check it out if you want to vomit.

The other day, I found a new record. Another Fiji bottle, this time with not even a few sips taken. the bottle was smaller, but the amount drunk less. To clarify, in case you can’t tell from the picture, the lid has been open and some water consumed. No one can drink the rest because who knows if it’s safe. But the person who opened it didn’t want it anymore so left it on the ground.

Anyone who believes this insouciant product represents free trade or that it benefits the world despite being profitable and contributing to the GDP of multiple nations is crazy.

Of course, an airplane produces this much pollution probably in a fraction of a second even just idling on the runway before leaving the gate. We all have our rationalizations and justifications why our pollution is just the right amount of balance.

EDIT: Here’s an obituary of the guy who started exporting Fiji water all over the world, David Gilmour, though anyone who buys bottled water is funding it, no matter where the water comes from. Bottled water is what makes a system where tap water becomes unsafe to drink. You never need to buy bottled water or any bottled beverage again.

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EDIT: Sadly, I expect I’ll find myself adding more pictures to this post, as I am with pictures of discarded e-bikes and memorials to loved ones desecrated by garbage. Although none of these tragedies likely measure up in in-your-face killing-for-no-benefit loss of Christmas pagan trees.

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December 2023. I wish I could say I was looking for this repugnance, but I just see it. I don’t bother taking pictures of the countless mostly full plastic bottles of water I see almost daily, but the Fiji ones stand out for coming halfway around the world and costing more.

EDIT: I’ve mostly stopped taking these pictures despite seeing opportunities, but sometimes I can’t pass the more egregious examples. This size bottle only lowers Earth’s ability to sustain life with no redeeming value:

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May 29, 2025: Sickened by another unfinished Fiji bottle. I see dozens, maybe hundreds or thousands, of plastic bottles littered daily. Why did this one sicken me enough to take the picture? Probably for the distance it traveled, only to be half drunk and discarded. Maybe that it’s being marketed with images of the beauty that its purchase destroys.

I hope people who buy packaged food or doof of any sort, not just water, realize they are funding that destruction as much as anyone.

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EDIT: What do you know, a couple days later, another unfinished Fiji bottle:

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EDIT: June 7, more tragedy:

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June 22: For the record, for every Fiji bottle I see, I see probably thousands of other brands’ bottles.

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July 2: Two pictures of two bottles this time. I saw this bottle sticking out of this trash can. As I took the picture, a woman standing nearby as part of a group had a Fiji bottle. After I took the picture, she put the second bottle in, pushing the first one down. I concluded the first bottle came from someone else in the group.

I thought about explaining why I take pictures of Fiji bottles, the 10,000 mile or so transportation, imperialism, and all that, but I could tell English wasn’t her first language from the polite words of excuse me etc and I didn’t see value coming out of it. But we here can still enjoy the moment of lamentable tragedy.

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EDIT: July 6: a pair of bottles with some other doof garbage, I guess not worth the time to dispose of:

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July 31, across Seventh Avenue from my home:

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August 2025: Apparently the trash can was too far away so the gutter had to suffice.

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More August 2025: A bit distant for my camera but still in view. Washington Square Park:

Later August, Union Square, with ice cream, both abandoned.

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Early September 2025: The Fiji bottle is in the top left in the garbage.

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September 15:

Here are a bunch more, from October 2025:

More for October 2025:

Halloween 2025:

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November 2025:

• ← This week’s selected media: July 9, 2023: The Death of Ivan Ilyich, by Leo Tolstoy, Homo Deus, by Yuval Noah Harari, and Her, by Spike Jonze
• 699: Robert Litterman, part 1: A Carbon Tax and Managing Risk →