Americans use two million plastic beverage bottles every five minutes. Now that you know that, can you imagine how much that is exactly? What if someone could show it to you?
My friend Gabe turned me on to this photographer, Chris Jordan, who makes stunning pictures of consumerism. Based in Seattle, Jordan has exhibited around the country and also has three photographic series on his website.
In one series, called “Running the Numbers,” Jordan takes statistics about American consumption and literally visualizes the numbers.
So what do two million of these plastic bottles look like?

Come closer for a better look.

Even closer to make the bottles recognizable.

There’s some digital manipulation involved, but his images remain staggering. Also in the series is a photo of what 426,000 cell phones look like. That’s how many are discarded in the U.S. every day.
Check out the rest of this series and his other photographic art by visiting Chris Jordan’s website.































