A Tale As Old As Time

The empty bottle bounces into another; a slight thwop sound echoing through the bustling plastics factory. This is the start of its story. The polyethylene terephthalate it once was, transformed into the shape of a drinking bottle. It doesn't know it yet, but this is the beginning of its brief and eternal life.

Its first trip is to the bottling plant, carbon dioxide exuding through the truck’s exhaust along the bumpy ride. Now arrived, the bottle patiently waits in line amongst the thousands of other bottles waiting to be filled. 

Eventually, it reaches the front of the line. Water streams into its body at factory speed. Then, once again, the bottle is sent on a trip; into the cold and dark of the delivery truck. The bottle’s only comfort is the thousands of other friends it’s surrounded by that will reach the same fate.

Its destination is just as grim, a random department store; Walmart, the sign out front flashes. One by one, each bottle is loaded into a clear fridge, crammed between cans of soda and beer. Now, all there’s left to do is wait. Wait, and wait for an unsuspecting hand to reach out and grab it. 

The bottle sits hopefully, waiting to be chosen. Days go by; the door opens and closes, opens and closes; bottles being taken, time after time. Then, one day, it's finally the bottle’s turn.

A lone hand reaches out and plucks it off the shelf. A boy. He clutches the bottle in one hand, scrolling on his phone in the other. After paying for the water and a bag of chips, he pushes open the door. The condensation on the bottle soon dripping onto the hot concrete sidewalk.

A couple of hours later the boy takes his final sip, tossing the empty bottle into the trash. This is where the bottle sits for the next few days, gathering dust and remnants of food and paper thrown into the same garbage can. Until a person comes to collect the trash, tying off the top of the garbage bag and tossing it into the back of another large truck.

Unlike before, this ride ends at the dump, the bottle left lying atop strewn objects as far as the eye can see. Days pass as mounds of trash continue to form over other piles in the dump. The bottle stays, a lone wind carrying it past the other garbage, little by little, until it reaches water; an ocean. A splash sounds as the bottle bounces in, beginning to drift far, far away.

As it floats across the vast sea, it reaches new beaches. Some leave the dirty bottle, but some pick it up, placing it in the trash. Soon, it will arrive at another garbage dump and the cycle will continue. Hundreds of years later, the bottle will still be stuck in this cycle. Just when the bottle thinks it has finally found its end, it will end up at the beginning again.