PLASTIC FANTASTIC
Bottles don't break like the heart
— By Andru Shively —
All you need is love, thought 58-year-old Brit Lorraine Forbes in Eastbourne on the southern coast of England. For years, she wrote letters to unknown recipients and threw them into the sea as messages in bottles, looking for love. Wanting to avoid the risk of broken glass, she used plastic bottles instead. In some cases, the letters drifted as far as the Dutch and French coasts, establishing the occasional cross-border correspondence.
All you need is love, thought 58-year-old Brit Lorraine Forbes in Eastbourne on the southern coast of England. For years, she wrote letters to unknown recipients and threw them into the sea as messages in bottles, looking for love. Wanting to avoid the risk of broken glass, she used plastic bottles instead. In some cases, the letters drifted as far as the Dutch and French coasts, establishing the occasional cross-border correspondence.
 Bottled-up love bobbing along, this one in traditional glass (Photo: Pexels/Maria Tyutina) |
Then, shortly before Christmas, bitter disappointment washed ashore. For a hefty cash-on-delivery fee, the postman returned one of her bottles, sent back in a packet full of stones to increase the postage cost, with the reply, “Please stop throwing rubbish in the sea. It goes to [the bay] one day later. Many thanks, a rubbish picker.”
While that might say something about love for the environment, it hardly speaks to romance!
16.01.2026 Plasteurope.com [259429-0]
Published on 16.01.2026