An architect has devised an ingenious way to reduce litter damage to the Indian Ocean, by using it to create an artificial floating island.

 It's called the Recycled Ocean Plastic Resort, and it's located off the coast of the remote Australian Cocos Islands, and could accept visitors by 2025.

 

The island will be created with wooden walkways tied to the ocean floor, while garbage will be carried in bags and a concrete net covered with sand and silt will be laid over it to create more paths.

 

The architect confirmed that the first step in constructing the island would be to secure three lanes with buoyancy devices attached to the ocean floor using “structures” similar to those used in oil rigs. The arms on these lanes then collect garbage from bottles to tires and transform them into bundles placed around the lanes.

 

These bags are then covered with a concrete fiber web as well as sand and silt which is pumped from the ocean floor and woven together to form walkways and platforms.

 

The mangroves will also be used as a means of flood defense by capturing or trapping sediment to build a kind of defensive wall, in addition to acting as a flood barrier due to their swollen roots. It absorbs water, preventing the island from capsizing or sinking, and boats will be used to carry the concrete net and any additional materials needed to create a surface over the floating waste.

 

The island will grow as more and more waste accumulates, but the architect says the scale of growth will be determined by the island's ability to develop and how effective construction will be.