The use of plastic bottles in construction is not new. There are people and organizations already using this method in many parts of the world, either to reduce housing costs or for environmental reasons. In Nigeria, one organization has used this cheap and sustainable alternative to help people who have nowhere to live.
Bottle houses are extremely strong and able to withstand extreme weather events such as earthquakes, torrential rains, fires, and are even bulletproof.
The use of this alternative raw material prevents a large amount of plastic from being discarded and remaining for hundreds of years polluting water sources and posing a risk to aquatic animals, writes the bicylovivo website.
The Nigerian project is the result of the joint action of two NGOs, the Association for Renewable Energy and the African Community Trust, and all the houses are designed to have zero carbon emissions during and after the construction process.
The homes are built by the community itself, using a technique that consists of filling bottles with sand, which are then fixed with concrete or clay, depending on the availability of materials locally.
In addition to the communities benefiting from houses built with this material, they receive photovoltaic panels and a system that generates energy from methane gas from human waste. This type of construction also helps to maintain a pleasant indoor temperature all year round.
According to the mentors of the project, to build a two-bedroom residence, about 14,000 plastic bottles are used. The houses can have up to three stories, which is how much the structure of this type can support.
In Nigeria alone, an average of three million plastic bottles are discarded every day. This environmental problem can help solve the other local need, which is the lack of housing, an alternative applicable anywhere in the world.
