Panama has taken the craft to another level by using plastic waste to construct walls in the world’s first Plastic Bottle Village. Recycled bottles are packed inside steel mesh cages and concrete to create regular houses (no wood is used). Founded by Canadian Robert Bezeau in August 2015, the eco-residential village of four complete houses is situated in the hilltop jungle of Isla Colón in the Bocas del Toro province of Panama. As well as making good use of a commonly discarded item – one estimate puts typical human consumption of plastic bottles at over 14,000 during a lifetime – ‘reconstructed’ buildings have other benefits. These include energy saving (improved insulation makes a plastic bottle house around 17 percent cooler), earthquake resistance, cost saving and rapid construction, and using reusable technology to encourage green living.