13 April 2010 / REUTERS, TAIPEI
A Taiwan company has built a three-storey exhibition hall using 1.5 million plastic bottles instead of bricks to raise interest in recycling, creating what the builder described as a world-first.
Far Eastern Group, a Taiwan-based conglomerate known for construction and financial services, commissioned the 130 meter (426 feet) long, 26 meter (85 feet) high structure almost three years ago and will donate it next month to the city government. Builders took bottles from Taiwan’s waste stream for reprocessing into plastic containers that interlock strongly enough to block the elements and withstand storms or earthquakes, said Arthur Huang, managing director of the contractor Miniwiz Sustainable Energy Development Ltd. No one else in the world had built an exhibition hall with walls made entirely of bottles, he said. “The chairman of Far Eastern is very gung-ho on the sustainability thing,” Huang said. “He always says sustainability can’t wait. He’s looking five to 10 years ahead.” The pavilion, dubbed the EcoARK, includes an amphitheatre, museum space and a screen of falling water collected during rainy periods for air conditioning.
