Spiral Island II: An island floating on plastic bottles

A keen environmentalist, Sowa wanted to make a statement about low-impact construction and recycling, so he built a floating platform from a quarter of a million old plastic bottles (and other waste materials). The first iteration was built in a lagoon on Mexico's Mayan Riviera, and was named for the pattern in which the bottles were connected. Unfortunately it was badly damaged during a 2005 hurricane, and washed ashore.

Spiral Island II was constructed a couple of years later in a lagoon on Isla Mujeres near Cancun. Street View gives us a glimpse from a nearby road.

The 20m-wide platform was created from about 100,000 bottles enclosed in netting. A variety of reclaimed materials - such as scrap wood - were used to build the small house that Sowa lives in. Mangrove plants provide shade and help with the structure's stability.

While the island may look a little ramshackle, it has a number of home comforts such as an outdoor dining area, a composting toilet, a couple of ponds, and solar panels to provide power. The surface of the platform is covered with sand which - coupled with the palm trees - provides that authentic tropical island feel.

Ecoble.com has an article giving more details about the construction process, while this blog post and a YouTube video give an idea of what life is like on Spiral Island - the "Island floating on plastic bottles".