From 12 tons of trash, a pop-up hotel with a message

For St. Louis’s City Museum, salvaged garbage helps create a hyperlocal feel. For the Save the Beach Hotel, it’s not just a building material but also a warning about the current state of Europe’s beaches. Led by Mexican Corona Extra beer brand, the Save the Beach effort aims to recover at least one European beach per year from destruction by pollution and other human-caused damage. Last year it was Capocotta beach in Rome, and votes are currently being accepted online for this year’s choice. To draw more attention to the challenge, the Save the Beach effort this summer built a hotel from garbage collected off Europe’s beaches. Created by German artist HA Schult and installed next to Castel Sant’Angelo in Rome, the Save the Beach Hotel was open from June 3 through 6. Some 12 tons of garbage collected from Europe’s beaches—more than a million pieces—were used to build the two-story structure, which could accommodate up to 10 people. Its very first guest was former supermodel Helena Christensen. Schult explains: “The philosophy of this hotel is to expose the damage we are causing to the sea and the coastline. We live in the era of trash and we are running the risk of becoming trash ourselves. Do we really want this world?” If a picture is worth a thousand words, just imagine how many could be packed into a trash-based hotel—not just about the problem at hand but also about the Corona brand’s eco-generosity. One to be inspired by! (Related: Pop-up cafe is a (straw) monument to sustainability.) Spotted by: Martina Meng