Now flatbed trucks carrying stacks of bottle-filled crates to distribution centers are a common sight on the road between Bom Jesus and Luanda.
He turns up at a carnival long enough to throw a few balls half-heartedly at a stack of bottles and aim a put-down line at Will Smith's character.
Inside, volunteers sorted through mounds of used clothes, stacks of water bottles and toilet paper that were spread out on black tarpaulins over the grass of the lush grounds.
"Where am I going to store them?" asked Sebastian Gediehn, the manager of Hoffmann, a beverage store, gesturing to the towering stacks of reusable bottles that he already takes back from customers.
There are priceless old films, keepsakes from starlets and antique aviator equipment, but also stacks of milk bottles, newspapers and nail clippings where do you start?
Sitting in a cramped back office of one of his clubs stacked with bottles of champagne and whisky, he told a young female reporter, who had pretended to apply for a job as a hostess, that "straight girls" didn't last long.
There's a stack of water bottles beside me.
But, just when it seems his job is complete, he spots another stack of beer bottles that have been discarded carelessly, with their mouths open to the heavens.
Behind them more demons are beginning to emerge, their grotesque masks lined up menacingly next to a stack of water bottles, spare wheels and empty crates.
There, a cage trap tucked between a washing machine and a stack of empty bottles has captured a new addition to her research: a fist-sized ball of dull brown fur with a pair of shining black eyes.
Wheels of gourmet cheeses stacked alongside bottles of golden olive oil.
