SOUTH PADRE ISLAND — Austin Walsh collects empty water bottles every day.
He plans to make a boat out of them to sail along the Island coast with his dog Biscuit.
“My goal is to take the trash and use it to clean up more trash,” Walsh, 28, said. “I live life to the fullest in every moment.”
This isn’t the biggest project he’s ever done.
His last adventure took him two years to do.
He walked across the Unites States starting at Delaware and ending in Utah before men driving by found him walking along the road in the desert in need of water.
“I walked across America when I was 24,” Walsh said. “What I want to be is an example for people to live their life on their terms.”
His has already collected more than 2,000 bottles, and has more than 20 trash bags full of bottles in his room.
“When I leave the Island, hopefully it will be on my own vessel,” Walsh said.
He said he has dedicated himself to not leave the Island at all.
And he even lost a job because it required him to cross the causeway to buy materials for a job he was working on.
He arrived on the Island in May and has been using the months of June and July to collect the more than 6,000 bottles he believes are needed for the design of the boat he plans to use to clean up the shoreline of trash.
Walsh said he has designed multiple prototypes.
He said he plans to complete the boat in August.
“Ultimately the boat is going to be 30 to 35 feet long,” Walsh said.
The boat will be made like a barge out of the water bottles connected with Liquid Nails to keep the bottles together.
“I think I’m probably going to focus on the north to the south end of South Padre Island,” Walsh said. “But I’m leaning toward doing some conservation and cleanup.”
