Help Richart Build a New Plastic Bottle Eco-Island

Hi everyone, my name is Richart Sowa, an average person with a dream, just like all of you. And today, I am here to ask you for help to make my dream come true!

Since my youth, I've always wanted to find ecological solutions to world problems. Such as water pollution with more and more plastics breaking down into our oceans and dangerous amounts of carbon in our atmosphere.

I used to think for hours about this, and one day an idea came to me in the form of a vision that was as vivid as seeing a youtube video in my head. I was astounded because I found myself looking down at the ocean as if I was flying. I saw a beautiful lush paradise Island below and somehow knew it was all floating on repurposed garbage.

I couldn't imagine how to begin such a thing at that time, but the vision greatly impressed me, so I drew it in a journal and stored it with many other books and stuff in my mom's home.

Well, about 15 years later, in 1996, I moved to Mexico.

One day as I was in Mexico City singing in the street, I was taken by strangers, a Mexican man with his wife and two small children, after no conversation, because they didn't speak English and I didn't speak Spanish, to see the Aztec tradition of building floating islands. This rang a clear bell in my mind as I remembered my vision and thought… "Could this be a sign?"

A few days later, I decided to go to Costa Rica, but I was stopped in my tracks as I began to pack.

I'd randomly brought an old journal with me from a pile of books at my mother's house in England that had enough blank pages to use. As I tried to put it in my bag, the corner caught on the zip, and it opened precisely on the page where I'd drawn the floating Island after the vision so many years ago!

I couldn't believe this was a mere coincidence, and that's what finally moved me to begin building a floating Island in Mexico on plastic bottles.

And I did it!

I made Spiral Island with all permissions in a marina 50km south of Cancun, floating on over 200,000 repurposed plastic bottles in nets. It flourished with mangroves of over 8 meters tall that were growing twice as fast as those on the shore (that can sequester 10 times more carbon from the atmosphere than a tropical forest). Their roots also filtered pollution from the water, strengthened the base of bottles and perfectly preserved them in darkness. I had a self-composting toilet that fed a produce garden, cooked with mirrors in the sun and made a rain collected, solar-heated shower.

Here is a link to a song I wrote and recorded about my floating Islands with many images in the video.

Spiral Island received a lot of media attention. But after six years, because of condo developments, I was forced out of the marina to the end of a jetee close to the ocean, and then one year later, Spiral Island was washed up onto the rocky shore by a hurricane.

I didn't lose hope and started planning another island.

This one, called Joysxee Island, was more significant, with many upgrades, such as Guest rooms, a cooling pool and a wind-powered solar-heated washing machine. But after 10 years again, I was forced from the protected lagoon in Isla Mujeres, very close to Cancun, out to the ocean where it was damaged from a passing hurricane but fixable.

I was planning to repair Joysxee but needed to visit my much loved, aging mother, and while I was away, an order was given, and it was chopped up and disposed of by the local government.

Mexico was an amazingly beautiful place to build the Island prototypes inspiring many tourists and attracting much media attention. But there are often tropical storms and hurricanes, and protected water is rare, with more docks and more boats that need to be there during lousy weather.

I am in Brazil now, a country with no hurricanes or even tropical storms and plenty of river outlets that are perfect for incubating a floating Island that could eventually be fully ocean-worthy.

I really want to build a new floating Island here in Brazil. To send a message of inspiration, showing how we can greatly reduce climate change. 

First with a franchisable floating Island for education and recreation and then a worldwide program to make agricultural hydroponic islands on lakes and rivers that can feed expanding populations and clean up the earth and atmosphere of carbon.

And Please know that You're Very Welcome to come stay on the New Island here in Brazil and celebrate our outstanding achievement together!