PETpla.net Insider 05 / 2017

imprint EDITORIAL PUBLISHER Alexander Büchler, Managing Director HEAD OFFICE heidelberg business media GmbH Bunsenstr. 14 69115 Heidelberg, Germany phone: +49 6221-65108-0 fax: +49 6221-65108-28 info@hbmedia.net EDITORIAL Kay Barton Heike Fischer Gabriele Kosmehl Michael Maruschke Ruari McCallion Waldemar Schmitke Anthony Withers WikiPETia.info petplanet@hbmedia.net MEDIA CONSULTANTS Martina Hirschmann hirschmann@hbmedia.net Johann Lange-Brock lange-brock@hbmedia.net phone: +49 6221-65108-0 fax: +49 6221-65108-28 LAYOUT AND PREPRESS EXPRIM Werbeagentur Matthias Gaumann | www.exprim.de READER SERVICES Till Kretner reader@hbmedia.net PRINT Chroma Druck & Verlag GmbH Werkstr. 25 67354 Römerberg Germany WWW www.hbmedia.net | w ww.petpla.net PETplanet Insider ISSN 1438-9459 is published 10 times a year. This publication is sent to qualified subscribers (1-year subscription 149 EUR, 2-year subscription 289 EUR, Young professionals’ sub- scription 99 EUR. Magazines will be dispatched to you by airmail). Not to be reproduced in any form without permission from the publisher. Note: The fact that product names may not be identified as trademarks is not an indication that such names are not registered trademarks. 3 PET planet Insider Vol. 18 No. 05/17 www.petpla.net Dear friends of PETplaner Insider, B-to-I (Bottle-to-Island) PET recycling is always a hot topic for us. It includes collecting, sorting, washing, preparing, granu- lating etc. Bottle-to-bottle recycling in particular has really caught our fancy. In addition, we also talk a lot about bottle-to-film or -thread. But today I’d like to talk about the second life of a PET bottle. For those who do not know, an old PET bottle can become a car oil bottle in the garage, or the bottle with fine holes in its lid becomes a spritz bottle for ironing or watering plants. We have found PET bottles used as spaghetti storage jars and much more. We would like your help to report on these other uses in the PETplanet Insider from time to time. For every one pub- lished, we will donate 20 euros to a good cause. Send us your examples of similar ingenious second uses of the PET bottle! I would like to start the series with an incredible B-to-I project, an island on around 150,000 PET bottles. The first PET bottle island, “Spiral Island” conceived by British artist Richart “Reishee” Sowa was washed up on the beach by hurricane Emily. In late 2007 and 2008, Sowa built a replacement for Spiral Island in the waters of Isla Mujeres, the “Island of Women”, also near Cancun. He filled nets with empty discarded plastic bottles to support a structure of plywood and bamboo, on which he poured sand and planted numerous plants, including mangroves. The new island was initially 20 metres (66 ft) in diameter, which has since expanded to 25 metres (82 ft), and plants and mangroves are already growing on it. The new island has three beaches, a house, two ponds, a solar-powered waterfall and river, a wave-powered washing machine and solar panels. Volunteers helped with the project. Sowa will continue to make improvements to the Island, so it will always be a work of art in pro- gress. www.youtube.com/watch?v=El6AU3riRI8 No need to be shy; we would love to hear about your projects, which do not, of course, need to be quite so ambitious! Yours Alexander Büchler