BOTTLAND FOUNDATION
Spiral Island, Riviera Maya, Mexico (2003).
Why "break" land when we can "make" land?
My name is Richart Sowa (British) and it's an exciting honour for me to share my findings with you.
Since youth, I've been searching for ecological-solutions to global problems.
In 1997 I felt powerfully inspired to begin a self-sustainable Floating-Land-Concept that came to me about 15 years earlier in a vision after a prayer.
My vision was a livable Floating-Garden Island supported by repurposed plastic bottles.
Joysxee Island (2011) in Lagoon Makash, Isla Mujeres, Mexico.
I built Spiral Island and Joysxee Island in Mexico upon a 1-5 mtr thick base of plastic bottles netted in re-used fruit/veg sacks.
Mangroves, which are the best trees for sequestering carbon (ten times more than a forest) grew on the Islands a lot faster than those on the shore because there's no root resistance, their periscopical breathers never get flooded in high-tide or dry out in low-tide because the islands rise and fall with water levels and young mangroves have to fight for light close to their parents and can't get a root hold further out in deeper water, but the Island's mangroves are always in the same level of water and can have as much space as they want as the Islands expand.
Their roots quickly bound and preserved the plastic bottles away from uv-rays and hydroponically cleaned the water they were floating on.
Joysxee Island (2017), the Bay of Isla Mujeres, Mexico.
Water fauna and even corals grew underneath protecting the bottles even further with blue carbon eco-systems and abundant marine habitats.
The Island became stronger with time with more and more root integration and even created it's own soil from falling leaves.
Our current Bottland project "Trashure Island" is located in Itacaré, Brazil, and shall become an educational tourist attraction
(more info on the Future page).