BELGRADE, SERBIA: A retired Serbian physics professor has built a house with plastic bottles in the place of bricks, a local newspaper reported on Monday (August 27th).

Tomislav Radovanovic, who came up with the idea before becoming a pensioner, built the dwelling from around 14,000 bottles in the central town of Kragujevac, 130 kilometres (80 miles) south of the capital Belgrade.

"I had the idea to build such a house while speaking to my students about alternative construction," he told the Politika newspaper.

The unique building material was collected by Radovanovic and his students from litter that had been scattered around the surrounding countryside - making his project very cheap.

"The house is comfortable and it practically cost me nothing," Radovanovic said, noting that the bottles make good heat insulators.

He acknowledged that he would be spending little time in the building, but explained: "In case of an earthquake, I would prefer being in this house than in a brick residence."