Wat Pa Maha Chedi Kaew was founded in 1984 after a group of monks got fed up with the amount of litter in Sisket. As a way to promote recycling and clean up the area, the monks asked the locals to bring them every glass bottle they could find - they were going to use them to make a temple.
The project was a smashing success, and over 1.5 million bottles were brought. Comprised of mostly green Heineken and brown Chang bottles, the monks were able to create a temple, crematorium, water towers, sleeping quarters, and even toilets from the bottles. Inside the temple, the monks used bottle caps to create mosaics and traditional Buddhist designs. Today, people still bring bottles to the eco-conscious monks, who will continue to use them to build more structures at the Temple of a Million Bottles.
