It’s not often that tourists line up to collect trash in the cities they’re visiting, and pay for the privilege, too. But in Amsterdam, ‘plastic fishing’ is a surprisingly popular way for outsiders to experience the city’s canals and give back at the same time. As awareness grows about the problem of plastic pollution, so does Plastic Whale’s list of customers. The organization provides two-hour tours in boats made of recycled plastic pulled from those same waterways, arming tourists with fishing nets and encouraging them to scoop up anything that doesn’t belong in the canals.

That detritus might include random items like wallets, keys, aluminum cans and candy wrappers, but it mostly consists of plastic – enough to provide Plastic Whale with a fleet of ten boats. The organization takes the trash to its facilities, sorts it and recycles it, with some of the plastic (and steel) becoming a range of high end office furniture in collaboration with manufacturer Vepa.

“Plastic Whale Circular Furniture is created following the full principles of circular production and design. So besides the recycled Amsterdam Canal plastic, we also make optimal use of other ‘waste streams’ at Vepa’s factory, including recycled steel for in our chairs and residual fabrics for the chair’s cushioning. Nothing goes to waste. At the end of its life cycle, we even take your product back from you. And pay you for it, because we’ll be using it as raw material in new products.”

Plastic Whale describes itself as a “social impact experience” where 100% of what tourists pay goes to their recycling goals. The canals get cleaner, new products get produced and visitors get a little more conscious about the impact of plastic on the environment while experiencing the city in a whole new way. Plastic Whale’s ultimate goal is to go out of business as less plastic appears in the canals in the first place.

The company books its weekend plastic fishing expeditions seasonally through Airbnb.

Images via Plastic Whale’s Facebook

Not just cold comfort, these portable shacks designed to be towed out onto frozen lakes come in a variety of forms, from the practical and resourceful to the funny and artistic.  These ice fishing hut designs demonstrate how surprisingly warm and cozy the simplest of shelters can be – and prove that people who live in the world’s coldest climates (happily spending their spare time engaging in recreational outdoor activities in subzero temps) are way hardier than the rest of us.

Fishing Hut & Hot Tub Combo

A group of local anglers in Calgary came up with a pretty brilliant way to stay warm while out on the ice: a towable hot tub, which they pull out onto frozen lakes alongside their fishing hut. It takes a couple hours to heat up, but the waiting time has got to be worthwhile once you get in. “We weren’t catching any fish, so we thought we’d do something else,” says the tub’s creator, Scott Chesterman.

Ice Fishing Hut with Frozen Walls

Rather than hauling a pre-made hut out onto the water, you could work with what’s already there. This mobile fisherman’s hut design by Norwegian architecture studio Gartnerfuglen is made of a wooden frame and wire mesh, used as a form for ice. Once the walls freeze into place, the inside is insulated. In the summertime, it can be used as a garden shed, with the wire supporting climbing plants.

The Art Shanty Project: 8 Creative Hut Designs

Is this the polar opposite of Burning Man? Over 1,000 artists have designed and built creative ice shanties for the annual ‘Art Shanty Project’ over the last decade, covering the frozen surface of a Minnesota lake like an iced-over version of the popular desert festival. The creations include wooden stick-framed shacks, geodesic domes, tipis, sculptural structures and mobile shanties of all kinds, put on display for thousands of tourists to see for an event that’s uniquely Minnesotan.

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Angling For Warmth In Winter 21 Ice Fishing Hut Designs

Since the early 2000s, decommissioned New York City subway cars have been seeded into the waters around New Jersey, Delaware, Virginia and other eastern states, creating infrastructure for fish habitats along the coastal shelf running from New York to North Carolina. Artificial reefs like these can increase sea life concentrations dramatically in otherwise-flat subsurface regions, boasting up to hundreds of times as much biomass per area of seafloor.

In late 2000, the Metro Transit Authority began dumping 1200 old cars into the water; in 2007, another 1600 were added to the list. These frameworks of these sunken cars serve as replacement rock outcrops on which corals and plants grow, leading to oysters, mussels and further sea life. Photographer Stephen Mallon has spent years capturing this deliberate subway-dumping activity in action on the surface.

Meanwhile, sequential underwater images show the subsurface results over time. The progress photos above and below were shot after 5 years and 10 years, respectively, demonstrating just how rapidly and effectively these places can become populated, first sparsely and then densely.

The critical amount of biomass that develops makes these cars hotspots for diverse populations of underwater creatures all along the food chain, together forming self-sustaining regional ecosystems.

In turn, these locations can attract fishermen and divers as well, keen both to see the thriving populations of aquatic life but also to explore the underwater ruins of modern machines. Far as they may be from their original subterranean homes, these train cars still manage to serve citizens of cities along the Atlantic coast in their own unusual ways.

Nestled in the hills on a remote island at the mouth of the Yangtze River in China and full of rich foliage, one could imagine this small fishing hamlet to be an idyllic place, at least for nature if not for people – it has been abandoned by humans now for nearly half a century.

Ivy has become the dominant and defining feature of both the natural and built environments of this place, slowly but surely creeping over sidewalks and streets, up walls and roofs, and ultimately taking over the town.

In some cases, collapsed portions of structures have made it all the more easy for the greenery to work its way over the sides of buildings and into their empty floors.

Set on Gouqi Island, one of hundreds of small islands in the area, the Houtou Wan Village was a victim of changing times and circumstances, a combination of urbanization and depleted fish populations that drove its inhabitants to seek work elsewhere.

Today, it is enjoyed only by visitors who seek it out explicitly, like photographer Jane Qing, chartering boats to travel to its shores and document the decay as well as the rebirth the place is now home to in its second life.

Yachts have always been the playthings of the ultra-rich, and some of them are so lavish as to border on ridiculous. However, just because yachts are perpetually inaccessible to most of the population doesn’t meant that we do not appreciate their unique and graceful designs. So just for a while, pretend you are one of the world’s super-wealthy and take a tour of one company’s incredible yacht offerings.

Oculus

(all images via: Schopfer Yachts)

The Oculus, meant to look like a giant fish or marine mammal, is Schopfer Yachts’ first design launch. The 250 foot long-distance cruising yacht is meant to accommodate up to 14 people in crazy luxurious style. The company recently announced that they have chosen a naval architect to begin building this monument to sea-faring elegance.

With three levels, 12-foot-high ceilings and a dedicated Owner’s Suite, the Oculus is bigger than most homes. Which could come in handy when the tough life of a billionaire gets to be too much and the future owner of this beautiful beast just has to get away from it all.

Infinitas

Putting aside for a moment the fact that yachts are luxury items that very few can afford, it is easy to see that they are often the result of fantastic design by skilled craftspeople. The Infinitas was inspired by the infinity symbol and it is easily one of the most inventive looking yachts ever designed.

On of the stand-out features of the Infinitas is the huge pool deck between the lounge and dining room. The pool is bisected by a footbridge which guests can walk across to access either side of the deck; swimmers can glide through the underwater openings in the bridge’s support. Alternately, guests can walk across the glass-floored, glass-roofed sky bridge directly above the pool on their way to the dining room or the helipad.

Audax

The sleek Audax is a sport fishing vessel whose name translates to “adventure.” The team at Schopfer went out of their way to create a fantastically redesigned version of the typical sport fishing yacht.

The redesign allows for much more cabin space, all arranged around a central staircase. The yacht tender and two jet skis have their very own storage areas with their own individual hoists, making it easy to get them into and out of the water.

Audax 130

The second yacht in the Audax series continues the trend of sleek, polished, luxury fishing yachts. The second Audax has a wealth of interior space along with cushioned sun lounges and mid-ship access to the flybridge.

The shape of the Audax 130 was inspired by the energetic ocean-going flying fish. It features a dedicated “garage” just for the on-board water toys and plenty of space for either fishing or just hanging out and enjoying the sights.