Now, a hospital made of beer bottles for animals

On the eve of World Environment Day, People For Animals (PFA), a city-based NGO that works for animal welfare, announced their plans to build a ‘modern hospital’ for animals. The hospital will be made using 50,000 beer bottles for walls, tyres for beds and used plastic bottles to make bird-feeders.

To design the premises of the hospital, PFA teamed up with Rebirth, an initiative dedicated to ‘upcycling’, i.e. using discarded goods to make new things.

Prashant Kumar, founder of Rebirth, said that the advantage of using glass for these shelters keeps the room cooler, since the walls have pores. Also, more sunlight streams in. “The best part about using glass is that we are making something new from the discarded bottles.

Coloured glass is rarely recycled. Also, it is much cheaper than using bricks,” said Kumar.

Rebirth plans to design another building using alternate architecture, with plastic bottles, beer cans, and cement mortar. “I am experimenting with these materials and hope to come up with a plan for the new wing soon,” said Kumar.

While the hospital was being planned, PFA considered four alternate architecture firms before deciding on Rebirth. “Since the people from Rebirth had been helping animals even before this, they understood the needs of the animals better,” said Manoj Oswal, founder of PFA.

The hospital has acquired a one-acre space on Handewadi Road where around 100 animals have been cured by PFA in the past two months. Once cured, they are dropped back to the place they are picked up from.