Eco-message in a bottle: The United Bottle project
ReadyMakers are well acquainted with the concept of upcycling—using would-be trash to create a functional object (natch). But there’s something about beer bottles-turned-bricks that really brings the idea to life.
Inhabitat recently blogged about this neat Heineken bottle (a.k.a. the “world bottle,” or WOBO); designed in 1963, it was intended to be stacked horizontally (like bricks) and bonded with cement mortar. Brewer Alfred Heineken dreamt up the idea after observing hundreds of empty bottles littering the 
beaches of countries that had few affordable building materials. Unfortunately, the interlocking bottle system didn’t account for building corners or openings (walls only!), so the WOBO never got off the ground. Although the bottle’s designer, Dutch architect John Habraken, did manage to build a small shed—dear old Wikipedia estimates that 1,000 bottles would build a 10ft x 10ft shack—only a limited number were produced before the “world bottle” project was abandoned. (Read: these bottles are very rare and valuable forerunners of the green design movement. Keep an eye out for them at garage sales and second hand stores.)
But now a current project, United Bottle, is picking up where the WOBO left off, this time using plastic instead of glass. United Bottle’s premise is that if the need arises (e.g. during one of the recent and tragic natural disasters), the company’s water bottles could be taken out of recycling centers and used to build temporary housing. (The bottles are already in circulation in Europe.) Although the premise comes across as rather apocalyptic, the United Bottle project supports the case that everyday objects should be designed with a second life in mind. Waste not, want not.
