One man’s trash is another man’s treasure, as the saying goes — but for French computer entrepreneur Eric Becker, it’s more like a treasure island, one complete with a hotel, two swimming pools and a karaoke bar.
Mr Becker’s ‘L’île Flottante’ — or ‘Floating Island’ — resort bobs about the surface of the lagoon in Abidjan, the economic centre of West Africa’s Ivory Coast, on a platform made of around 700,000 plastic bottles and debris.
The island was built to foster greener and more mobile tourism — such that is less harmful to coastlines and seas than tradition, fixed, resort constructions — with the hope of inspiring similar projects elsewhere.
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One man’s trash is another man’s treasure, as the saying goes — but for French computer entrepreneur Eric Becker, it’s more like a treasure island, pictured, one complete with a hotel, two swimming pools and a karaoke bar
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Mr Becker’s ‘L’île Flottante’ — or ‘Floating Island’ — resort bobs about the surface of the lagoon in Abidjan, the economic centre of West Africa’s Ivory Coast, on a platform made of around 700,000 plastic bottles and debris
The island itself houses two thatched bungalows, a restaurant, two small pools, various trees and shrubs and a walkway which loops out from the centre of the floating structure, which covers 10,700 square feet (1,000 sqm).
Visitors to the resort are brought to the island by boat. The island charges visitors 15,000 CFA francs (£19/$25) per day visit — which includes a meal and the ferry trip — or 60,000 CFA francs (£77/$100) for an overnight stay.
The island, which is moored in place, used to be Mr Becker’s home, before he converted it into a hotel last year. As a resort, L’île Flottante attracts around 100 customers each week — including both curious locals and ecotourists.
‘What is nice about this concept is that we are taking something negative — plastic bottle pollution — and turning it into something positive,’ Mr Becker told the AFP.
‘If only all of us could do this on an individual scale.’
Mr Becker had originally envisaged building a catamaran from discarded waste — but soon settled on making a floating island paradise after he saw the lagoon in Abidjan. He sold nearly everything he owned to make his unusual dream a reality.
His first step in constructing the island involved foraging for as much floating waste as he could lay his hands on — incorporating ‘plastic bottles, bits of polystyrene, even beach sandals’ into the structure.
The entrepreneur’s activities earnt him the name Mr ‘Bidon’ amongst the locals — a word which can refer to either a jerrycan, an example of the kinds of waste Mr Becker built into his island, bit also ‘phoney’.
‘We bought disused bottles off people, we foraged for them in the lagoon,’ he said.
‘After a while, we learned to follow the wind and find the places where floating rubbish accumulates.’
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The island itself houses two thatched bungalows, a restaurant, two small pools, various trees and shrubs and a walkway which loops out from the centre of the floating structure, which covers 10,700 square feet (1,000 sqm)
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Mr Becker’s first step in constructing the island involved foraging for as much floating waste as he could lay his hands on — incorporating ‘plastic bottles, bits of polystyrene, even beach sandals’ into the structure. Pictured, Mr Becker sorts through some of the plastic waste he has gathered from the coastlines around Abidjan
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The island was built to foster greener and more mobile tourism — such that is less harmful to coastlines and seas than tradition, fixed, resort constructions — with the hope of inspiring similar projects elsewhere
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The entrepreneur’s activities earnt him the name Mr ‘Bidon’ amongst the locals — a word which can refer to either a jerrycan, an example of the kinds of waste Mr Becker built into his island, bit also ‘phoney’
Although the island can be moved to different locations, its present mooring has a pipe which brings drinking water across from the nearby shore. Electricity is provided by solar panels and a backup generator.
The island itself weighs around 200-tonnes at present, and is ideally suited for floating in the shallow waters of lagoon where it is isolated from the rougher nature of the ocean.
Mr Becker sees the L’île Flottante resort as just as an initial example of the kinds of purposes these waste-based islands could be used for.
‘People could live [on floating islands] in lagoons that are pollution-free, and live from fish farming,’ he said.
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Visitors to the resort are brought to the island by boat. The island charges visitors 15,000 CFA francs (£19/$25) per day visit — which includes a meal and the ferry trip — or 60,000 CFA francs (£77/$100) for an overnight stay
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Mr Becker had originally envisaged building a catamaran from discarded waste — but soon settled on making a floating island paradise after he saw the lagoon in Abidjan. He sold nearly everything he owned to make his unusual dream a reality. Pictured, some of the plastic bottle waste that makes up the island’s floating platform
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Mr Becker sees the L’île Flottante resort as just as an initial example of the kinds of purposes these waste-based islands could be used for. Pictured, plastic waste littering a shoreline near Abidjan
Mr Becker is keen to stress that while his resort is greener than conventional hotels, it is not perfect and still carries with it an environmental cost.
One such issue concerns the feat that the island’s occupation is adding to the lagoon’s ongoing pollution problem. Like the city of Abidjan, sewage created on L’île Flottante is presently released into the lagoon.
Mr Becker, however, is reportedly testing out technology that could allow human waste to be recycled into compost for the plants on the island.
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The island, which is moored in place, used to be Mr Becker’s home, before he converted it into a hotel last year. As a resort, L’île Flottante attracts around 100 customers each week — including both curious locals and ecotourists
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Mr Becker’s first step in constructing the island involved foraging for as much floating waste as he could lay his hands on — incorporating ‘plastic bottles, bits of polystyrene, even beach sandals’ into the structure. Pictured, Mr Becker and associates gather waste on a shoreline near the artificial island
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‘It’s a very untypical place — I’ve seen nothing like it elsewhere,’ said Charles Moliere, 28, who works in the Ivory Coast and learnt about the floating resort in a tourist guidebook.
‘I think it’s a neat idea to give a second life to plastic like this and to make a kind of small technical breakthrough.
‘I like this place a lot.’
‘It’s the ecological qualities which impress me most — these days, people are talking more and more about the environment,’ added computer engineer Hamed Kone, who visited the resort after reading about it on the internet.
Mr Becker ‘has transformed city rubbish into a pleasant place,’ he added, concluding that L’île Flottante was ‘an idea whose time has come. I hope it inspires other people.’
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Mr Becker’s ‘L’île Flottante’ — or ‘Floating Island’ — resort bobs about the surface of the lagoon in Abidjan, the economic centre of West Africa’s Ivory Coast, on a platform made of around 700,000 plastic bottles and debris
+15
Mr Becker’s first step in constructing the island involved foraging for as much floating waste as he could lay his hands on — incorporating ‘plastic bottles, bits of polystyrene, even beach sandals’ into the structure. Pictured, Mr Becker sorts through some of the plastic waste he has gathered from the coastlines around Abidjan
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Mr Becker’s ‘L’île Flottante’ — or ‘Floating Island’ — resort bobs about the surface of the lagoon in Abidjan, the economic centre of West Africa’s Ivory Coast, on a platform made of around 700,000 plastic bottles and debris
