From the Series
This short film by Mel Film Productions sheds light on the work of Robert Bezeau, the Canadian-born environmental activist who cleans up the waters of Panama and builds new homes at the same time.
Bezeau’s ocean clean-up journey started in 2012 when he worked with a group of local volunteers to purge the island beaches of Bocas del Toro of its plastic bottle problem. Having collected over a million plastic bottles during that campaign and wanting to do something more productive than shipping them to a landfill site, Bezeau made the unusual decision to start building houses with the discarded plastic material.
In addition to cleansing the natural landscape of harmful plastic bottles, Bezeau and his associates build homes that make use of the plastic bottle blocks’ ability to insulate against the tropical heat of Panama. The Plastic Bottle Village features homes that are not only green, but cool too.