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Plastic-Bottle Homes Are Popping Up Around the World

In the United States alone, 47 billion plastic bottles are discarded annually, and worldwide, enough plastic is thrown out in a single year to circle the globe four times. But a form of construction being used throughout Africa and Latin America is making a difference, not only by reducing plastic waste but also by taking advantage of the durability of plastic bottles to provide shelter for the homeless.

The “bottle wall technique,” developed by German firm Ecotec Environmental Solutions, has been training people in Nigeria, where 16 million people are homeless, to build homes out of plastic bottles.

The process is simple. Bottles are collected and filled with sand, then stacked on their sides and bound together with mud or a cement mix, creating solid walls. The structures are well insulated, incredibly strong (20 times stronger than brick), fire resistant, and even bulletproof. A typical two-bedroom home with a toilet, a kitchen, and a living room requires 14,000 plastic bottles and costs a quarter of what a conventional house would.

An increasing number of communities around the world are experimenting with the technology. An Ecotec house in Ecoparque El Zamorano, Honduras, was built with 8,000 bottles without using cement, and it supports a green roof that weighs up to 30 tons when wet. Ecotec plastic-bottle greenhouses, office partitions, sheds, benches, walls, and community centers are also popping up in Tokyo, the U.S., Europe, and South America.

Design-wise, colored bottle caps protrude from the walls for a colorful effect, and exposed rows and sections allow light to filter through the structures. Ecotec even created the world’s first vaulted ceiling made out of plastic bottles in Honduras.

This type of environmentally friendly construction requires a community effort. The bottles must be recovered through massive cleanup efforts and recycling drives, and filling each one with sand often involves many hands.

While this construction technique is now being used in developing countries across the world, some think it makes sense to use it in all countries with high homeless numbers.

always a good thing to get people involved in making themselves a home.

Help the homeless, bottoms up.

i think bullet proof, as sad as it sounds, is really important, as they always seem to have civil wars, some warlords, and other stuff happening in africa.

but i'm glad they found a way to make plastic waste into something really useful, and cost effective all at once.

Thats outstanding!

Love reading stuff like this.

That's pretty cool. I have a hard time imagining that it's 20 times stronger than brick.. but ok.

We should do that in the United States after we spend 15 years testing it, litigating its safety, rewriting all of the codes, what kind of foundation it requires, how the roof structure is attached, what is its durability in the event of an earthquake, etc... By the time we are done, a 2 bedroom, 1 bath plastic bottle house will only cost $280,000 to build.


Then we would still be fighting over which parts of town they can be built, fighting about why more minorities live in plastic bottle houses than other races...

Or how much toxic gas they put out in a fire.

This seems like a good (and creative) use for something that creates an environmental problem.

http://earthship.com/

This type of design has been used since the 70's by Michael E. "Mike" Reynolds an American architect based in New Mexico known for the design and construction of Earthships. He is a proponent of "radically sustainable living".

The major obstacles in the U.S. have been getting greedy local gov't's to allow the off the grid type of sustainable construction and update the building codes because it takes away tax dollars, construction dollars, along with utility & energy revenue from the big guys who buy the politicians to do their bidding.

you don't need the plastic at all a mixture mud and straw makes cob which has been used for thousands of years to make some of the strongest homes. Some have lasted literally for a thousand years and are still occupied in England even.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cjb709Tx7MA

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GbM2In5Hfx4

Also provides cleaner air inside your house since it releases zero pollutants unlike drywall into living areas.

An even better material is cob made from mostly hemp called hempcrete.(not that same kind that makes pot) It actually forms walls that breathe and clean the air to the point some doctors endorse having a house made of it for children who suffer asthma and other type of breathing difficulties. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=naGAnhax-tI

The last one that I really like is called rammed earth. They take a type of jack hammer and smash it into dirt until its so compact it becomes a solid like rock. It's extremely gorgeous and ridiculously strong. impervious to rot, insect damage, and bullet proof. Not as airclean though since some folks mix concrete into it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7JqlOePXZfM

I read that article yesterday. Pretty cool eh?

Speaking of different kinds of homes....

I think underground homes are really cool, but if I owned one I'd be worried as all hell that it would flood and/or leak.



Of a matter of fact, if I was to have a regular house built I'd most likely would not even have a basement. Why? They always flood, sooner or later, at least once. Even with new homes. It must TOTALLY suck to have a furnished basement and have it flood. I've heard it from many homeowners: "The sump pump didn't work." All that ick water ruining all your stuff. I'd curse up a storm forever.

There are many ways to minimize potential damage with a basement possibly flooding. Not saying you can prevent it - but I am saying it's fairly easy to prevent major headaches if it does happen.

First thing would be to have a battery backup sump pump so if the power goes out, the backup works. Gotta check the battery though.

Also, for people that have municipal water, there is a back up pump that, believe it or not, runs from the fresh water pressure from the city lines.

If you own a house, spend $200-$400 on a back up sump pump that you keep on the shelf in case your sump pump breaks.

Don't have pad under the carpet in your basement.

Meh, a massive flood came through and my half buried room - I can't really call it a basement - didn't flood. However I did get 4 feet of water in my crawl space. It destroyed the furnace. Crawl spaces will always flood though.

You can always haul in dirt to elevate where you plan to build, fortify it with concrete blocks or stone, and then have an evac channel to funnel out water. Then because your on elevated land you will never flood even though your technically underground.

The real problem with underground housing is air flow/ air exchange. The ground periodically emits bad pockets of gas from deep below and can be toxic if you don't have fresh air coming in. It can be dangerous if your electricity goes out if you don't have a backup generator or built in air channels. I knew a guy who had a air funnel direct air into a fake tree on the west side and evacuated the air in another fake tree on the east side.

HGTV used to have a show about weird houses and a couple of them had windows made out of wine bottle bottoms that would look like stained glass.