Yes, you heard correctly: one of Rome's newest hotels is made of garbage (except for its actual structure). The building, located on Capocotta Beach, is aptly named Save the Beach Hotel because it was created to raise awareness about the trashy state of many of Europe's beaches.
The hotel is covered with over 26,000 pounds of debris collected from Europe’s beaches. As the first project in their Save the Beach campaign, Corona (yes, the beer company), the Save the Beach Hotel is a reminder to people about how trash-laden their beaches are and that, if this disregard for them continues, this is what they'll end up like — trashed.
This article appears in Jun 3-9, 2010.