In 1980, a Canadian fisherman began building with discarded bottles; four years later, he had completed a house, tavern and chapel

Édouard T. Arsenault received a postcard from his daughter Réjeanne in the summer of 1979, which showed a glass attraction she had visited on Vancouver Island. The image gave the retired Prince Edward Island fisherman and carpenter an idea, who began collecting empty bottles from around his community, with supplies coming largely from a local restaurant and community dance halls. Friends, relatives and neighbours added more. Over the following winter, Arsenault worked in the basement of his Cap-Egmont home, washing the bottles, removing their labels and sorting them, and in the spring of 1980, at age 66, he began building. The project started as a hobby, but it eventually produced three separate structures made from more than 25,000 recycled bottles. The official history of the Bottle Houses says Arsenault worked on the project from 1980 until the spring of 1984.

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