Spiral Island: How to Build You Own Tropical Paradise...Out of Trash!

in #libertarianism8 years ago (edited)

However well you're doing on Steemit, odds are good you can't afford your own private island. But what about building your own? That's what British artist Richard Sowa did. Starting in 1998, Richard set about collecting discarded plastic bottles, realizing they made for durable, free floatation.

Talk about upcycling! Literal garbage into your own little floating slice of paradise. The foundation to which he lashed these mesh bags of plastic bottles was built from plywood and bamboo. A layer of retaining fabric was stretched over that, to support a layer of sand laid down on top of it. This permitted growing certain plants, like mangroves.

Though it began small, it rapidly grew through the subsequent years until it was 66 feet by 54 feet. The completed island can be seen below. Sadly, plywood and bamboo doesn't hold up terribly well to hurricanes. Sure enough, hurricane Emily totally destroyed Spiral Island in 2005. The location, moored in a lagoon on the Caribbean coast of Mexico, may have doomed it from the start.

Undaunted, in Richard began to construct Spiral Island II, later renamed Joyxee island. By 2008 it reached the size of the original Spiral Island, but rapidly exceeded it. Today it's 82 feet across, bigger and badder than Spiral Island ever was.

Below you can see Joyxee Island before sand was layered over the fabric. It strikes me that the process of building these islands bears a resemblance to some creation stories. Richard has in fact built his own little micro-world, to his own specifications.

Those specifications include a house, three beaches, two ponds, a solar powered waterfall and river, a wave powered washing machine and a solar setup for supplying the house with electricity. Attracted by the novelty of it and wanting to take part, several volunteers have helped expand Joyxee Island over the years, and Richard has no intention of stopping.

Of course the Mexican government has taken notice. Besides hurricanes, Richard must now content with burdensome regulations. Joyxee Island is permitted to exist but classified as an "eco boat" and thus required to meet the same standards as any other boat such as adding fire extinguishers, life vests and emergency kits. Perhaps reasonable requirements for a watercraft, but a small island? You really can't get away from that sort of thing, can you.

Richard Sowa is truly an interesting guy. Having watched some of his interviews he's certainly "out there" but his ideas are grounded in legitimate physics otherwise he wouldn't have been able to do any of this. Some of his ideas, like a large magnesium salt water fuel cell for power are intriguing, and I hope to see them realized soon.

I'm sure the Kickstarter money he netted recently will help with that, and a few high rolling donors even got their own private mini-Island out of it, built by Richard himself. What does the future hold for Joyxee Island? Continual growth? Repeat destruction by Hurricane? Or even micronation status?

Time will tell. But if it is destroyed again, I'm sure Richard will only build an even bigger, better replacement. Neither government nor even nature itself can keep a good man down, or even so much as restrain his ambitions.

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Hooray for utilizing trash resources! Thanks for this story @alexbeyman--it's got our creative juices flowing. We hear there's a trash island twice the size of Texas in the Pacific; maybe we'll move there...

I really want to see this concept done on a much larger level. We have so much trash that it would be amazing to see a 20 mile wide island built like this!

that's so awesome

I love this guy. What beast. Gotta hand it too him for going all in and taking a stand like this. I must say though, if that thing broke up into a billion pieces, I would hate to have to pay the bill for "littering".

What a badass. Do you accept visitors?

I'm not the guy who built this! I think you can do a tour if you call ahead and make it worth his while. Though really I imagine the main point of living this way is seclusion.

Sounds good man, I'll call him up right now.

read about him a few years ago - an amazing guy and life

This is brilliant, wonder if he will make me one and a separate one for my hubby

A separate one? Oh dear, haha.

His snoring is so bad lol

This is an inspirational piece that is just all about sheer willpower. I love that he's recycling garbage and turning it into some thing incredible. Aside from volunteers helping him build the island is amazing , but I'm curious if he also has any crowdfunding. I have upvoted this blog post and I will be featuring it on my daily hidden gems blog later today. Great content.

I watched a video about this a while ago. His island was destroyed in a hurricane and he rebuilt it.

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