The ‘Floating Factor’: Five Bottles With Something Extra by Leslie Pariseau Oct 14, 2011, 4:00 AM PDT ...

TORONTO, ON — If you happen to see any orange plastic bottles floating in Lake Ontario, leave them be. They might look like trash in the water, but they're actually part of a research project ...

When Richart Sowa completed working on his free-floating eco-paradise made up of more than 150,000 recycled bottles, he only wanted one thing. No, it wasn’t a spot to dock his new home. He had ...

The island is made out of marine foam for buoyancy and recycled plastic bottles — for every square foot, about 12 1/2 water bottles were kept out of the landfill, Correa said.

A group of volunteers prepare and launch floating islands made out of recycled plastic into Vermilion Bay at Cypremort Point State Park in Cypremort Point, La., on April 12, 2019.

The challenge is to identify the five empty bottles that are floating in the water. The catch is that you have to do it in under 15 seconds.

Floating wetlands were first launched in the harbor in 2010, and the program expanded two years ago. Each year, the Waterfront Partnership and Biohabitats Inc. rotate out 10 of the 56 wetland units.