How Bangladeshi inventors are making eco-friendly air conditioners from plastic bottles What can you make with old plastic bottles? A vase? A flowerpot? … an air-conditioning unit? Believe it or not, you can. When inventor Ashis Paul came up with an innovative way to draw cool air into homes using plastic bottles, his whole company got on board to help teach people living in rural Bangledesh to do the same. Since February this year, they’ve helped people to install these units-- which don’t need electricity to function-- in more than 25,000 households in developing areas of the country.