FADIA JUMA

Beirut- Caroline Chaptini is a Lebanon recycling artist, holder of five Guinness World Records. Known as “The Guinness Woman”, she works on holding a new Guinness World Record.

Her first Guinness project was to make a home Christmas tree out of plastic bottles in 2019. She made  a Christmas tree out of 140,000 plastic bottles in the municipality of Chekka, northern Lebanon.

“I collected 140,000 bottles in seven months and completed the Christmas tree in Chekka within 20 days in December 2019.” The tree was 28.1 meters and she won her first Guinness World Record, on January 14, 2020, for the tallest plastic bottle sculpture ever made.

‘I made the largest Crescent mosaic’

In May 2020, she made the largest Crescent mosaic out of 500,000 plastic bottle caps and she won her second Guinness World record on May 30, 2020, for the largest bottle cap mosaic. “Then, I made a 300.2-meter square flag of Lebanon by using recycled plastic materials and won my third Guinness World record on December 14, 2020. I became the first Arab woman to hold three Guinness records in one year.”

In March 2022, Caroline Chaptini won her fourth Guinness World record by making a mosaic globe out of recycled plastic materials in partnership with Sony Playstation MEA (UAE) in Dubai. The mosaic globe was made for the launch of the game Horizon: Forbidden West. She donates to the Kids First Association in Jbeil, which provides medical treatment for children under 18 who suffer from life-threatening cancer and blood diseases.

She faces many challenges

Speaking about the challenges faced by her, she said, “One of the challenges is the lack of sponsors for my projects. I often do not have enough money to buy some supplies. But the most important challenge is the weather conditions. For instance, I had to restart my Crescent project three times due to weather conditions.”

Caroline Chaitini is also known as “The Guinness Woman”. “Being called as the Guinness Woman means a lot to me. I suffered a lot in my society and was subjected to bullying because I was a divorced woman. This name gave me self-confidence and I tasted victory even though I did not receive sufficient support from people and I was subjected to criticism. Some people even called me ‘Garbage woman’ because I was collecting plastic bottles. Despite everything, I never gave up and now I am supported by many people.”

‘Do not lose your hope’

Caroline Chaitini concluded her speech by calling on all women not “to lose your hope and believe in yourselves that you are capable of facing challenges and that you can achieve success. Do not pay attention to what people say. I never gave up even though I was called a ‘divorced woman’ and won victory.”