Building with ‘Bottle-bricks’ Plastic bottle homes | Sunday Observer

Building with ‘Bottle-bricks’ Plastic bottle homes

1 May, 2022

Today, one of the biggest environmental issues facing not only Sri Lanka, but almost every country is the increasing use of plastics and the lack of adequate methods for recycling plastics. But Nigerians have come up with a brilliant solution.

In Nigeria, plastic, which has been a nuisance to everyone for a long time, is now being used as a means of building a decent home, which has also reduced waste of resources.

Earthquake resistant

Introduced to the world a few years ago, plastic bottle-made houses are said to be bulletproof and earthquake resistant. It is also mentioned that the temperature in plastic bottle houses is always around 18º C.

It is safe to say that the number of plastic bottles collected worldwide in a year should be calculated using billions. Most developing countries use the sea to dispose of plastic bottles, and in some countries plastic mountains can even be seen. But the situation in developed countries is quite different. They recycle plastics and sometimes reuse high quality plastics.

Statistics show that nearly 500 billion plastic bottles were produced in 2016, roughly 20,000 plastic bottles per second. But only 7 percent of this is directed towards recycling. It is also predicted that the production of plastic bottles will increase by 20 percent in the coming years.

The plastic bottle house tradition which originated in Yelva, Nigeria, as a solution to this as well as to provide affordable construction materials, has now spread not only on the African continent but also in Central and South America and Europe.

Similarly, not only ordinary Nigerians but also Government agencies have focused on building plastic bottle buildings. Today, most of around 500 million plastic bottles used annually in Nigeria are used to build houses and other buildings.

Restaurants

The first step in building a plastic bottle house is to select and separate the plastic bottles. A two-bedroom house would require about 14,000 bottles of the same size. Hotels, restaurants and embassies often supply plastic bottles for this purpose.

In addition, plastic bottles piled up on garbage dumps are collected separately. After collecting enough plastic bottles, the raw material to be procured is sand. The sand is filled in plastic bottles of equal size to be tightly packed. These ‘bottle bricks’ are about 20 times stronger than ordinary bricks and are ideal for making strong structures.

After obtaining the required number of ‘bottle bricks’ to build a house, the houses are constructed using clay instead of cement. It is said that the cost of building a plastic bottle house is about one-third of the cost of building a typical house. To make the house more stable, a cement foundation is applied as in a normal construction.

Plastic bottle houses are made by ordinary masons. Currently, large-scale construction of plastic bottle houses and plastic bottle housing complexes are taking place in Nigeria. There are about 25 houses in an apartment complex, and about 7,800 plastic bottles are used to make one house with a bedroom, a bathroom, a living room, and a kitchen.

Metal sheets are commonly used for roofing in such a house. Solar panels will be installed in fully built and finished homes, and water purification tanks will be available instead of the usual water supply. Therefore, it is not a mistake to call plastic bottle houses completely eco-friendly.

Most plastic bottle houses are made in the shape of a cylinder. But in South America you get to see plastic bottle houses that look like traditional farm houses.

Plastic bottle-based construction technology, which is popular in rapidly developing countries, is now being used to design schools, water tanks and public benches, and engineers are also focusing on building two-and three-story homes using plastic bottles. 

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