WIDN blog
Thai Temple made from beer bottles
February 19, 2009
By Emma Gritt
Thai Temple made of beer bottles
When I used to work in a pub it distressed me that at the end of every night many bottles would simply be thrown in to the bin. Why not recycle them? Apparently it’s not ‘economical’. Well, when I read about some monks who have built a temple out of discarded beer bottles in the Metro on my way to work today I was really pleased to see that not all bottles end up in the bin.
The structure is really marvellous, I’m impressed by the colour scheme – a mixture of Heineken and local beer Chang.
The Metro reports:
They use the discarded bottles - about 1.5million of them - to make every structure at the complex in Thailand, from the crematorium to the toilets.
And the monks are planning to build even more, urging local authorities to bring their unwanted glass for some serious recycling.
'The more bottles we get, the more buildings we make,' said Abbot San Kataboonyo.
The monks began collecting bottles in 1984 and kept on until they had close to 1million.
Closer to home, the Centre for Alternative Technology in Wales, has built what resembles a giant cheese and pineapple hedgehog out of bottles and cement.
The Bottle Dome
I have been surprised to learn that buildings made from bottles are not a new occurrence. Grandma Prisbey’s Bottle Village in California was built from 1956 to 1980 and features a series of 13 sheds and other small structures on a small lot of land in Simi Valley. Apparently, the old lady originally made the structures to house her collection of pencils - she had 17,000 of them.
She also collected creepy dolls.
Considering I have a fear of dolls and an aversion to lead, I doubt I would have the bottle to stay the night at Grandma’s!
back to top