The Morrow Royal Pavilion in Las Vegas just claimed the title of the world’s largest building made from recycled bottles! Created by Las Vegas Entrepreneur Scott McCombs, the 30,000-square-foot manufacturing facility is made from more than 500,000 beer bottles that were crushed and formed into a composite material called GreenStone that was used to build the structure. The project diverted thousands of pounds of material from the junk yard, saving an estimated 400,000 cubic yards of landfill space – that’s equal to 8 football fields piled to the top of the goal post.
If the design of the building looks familiar, it’s because it was inspired by the Swarkestone Hall Pavilion in England, which is pictured on the cover of the Rolling Stones’ Hot Rocks album. According to the Las Vegas Review-Journal, Realm of Design has launched a Facebook campaign to try to get the band to visit the new building.
Almost everything in the new facility has some element of glass in it. The building is made largely of GreenStone, a sturdy concrete substitute that’s made from a recycled glass aggregate and fly ash, a byproduct from coal-fired power plants. To produce the material, Realm of Design collects beer bottles from Las Vegas Strip hotels. The glass is crushed into tiny grains, mixed with fly ash, and poured into molds, where it dries and hardens. GreenStone can be used to make anything from fireplaces and mantles to balustrades and columns.
+ Realm of Design
