Not Quite Gilligan’s Island: Man (Re)Builds Island Paradise on 250,000 Recycled Plastic Bottles

When Richie Sowa’s tropical island paradise was destroyed in Hurricane Emily in 2005, it contained a two-story house, a self composting toilet, solar oven and three beautiful beaches. Pretty modest as far as private islands go, you think, except that Richie’s island was floated on plastic bottles – 250,000 of them to be exact. Spiral Island, as it was called, was the result of the life-long environmentalist’s efforts to demonstrate sustainable living.

Now, Richie is back to building his new island and this time his plans are even more ambitious. Not content with the original design that had bamboo and plywood netting loaded with sand and complete with planted mangroves, all laid out on a bed of plastic bottles, Richie now plans to design the island so it can float out to sea. An island and yacht in one! It’s located in Mexico, and this time Richie plans to make sure it resists the vagaries of the weather.

So is this plastic bottle, sand and bamboo contraption an island or ship? Well, it’s classified as a ship in Mexico, and it has its own fan club comprising tree huggers from all over the world who in September launched their own website to keep up to date with the new Spiral Island’s progress.