“What used to be trash now becomes something very useful for animals.”

Amarildo Silva Filho, 23, was originally born in Brazil. The once struggling artist had a job at a grocery store to pay the bills, but felt he wasn’t living his up to his true potential.

What Amarildo really wanted to do was to offer a helping hand to animals and the environment.

His neighborhood in Brazil is often scattered with what most people would call garbage. Amarildo, however, sees lots of potential in the abandoned and discarded paper and plastic.

One day, he came upon a heap of tires piled along the street. Since he always had a passion for recyclable materials and using them to create upcycled items, he wanted to try and turn one of these old tires into a bed for one of the number of stray animals roaming the streets of Brazil.

What began as a standard experiment turned into a bona fide project. In the last two years, Amarildo has taken over 6,000 discarded tires and used them to make warm, cozy, and incredible animal beds.

The entire process takes about 40 minutes, in which Amarildo cuts and cleans the tires. He then makes each bed unique with different colors and designs and writes the name of the animal to whom the bed will belong. He either collects the tires off the streets, buys them in large quantities or receives them as donations.

Amarildo’s animal beds have become so popular that he now receives orders from people across the country — but he hopes to expand his business since he doesn’t have any employees to help him.