Building sustainable houses with waste plastic bottles?
While recycling plastics and other materials which do not degrade easily makes a lot of sense, the high costs associated with such processes restrict its implementation in many developing countries. In Nigeria, used plastic bottles are discarded at alarming rates but organizations like the Developmental Association for Renewable Energies (DARE) are interested in minimising such wasteful practices. They have embarked on a house-building project that shows potential to meet such targets and provide job opportunities at the same time. The head of DARE,Yahaya Ahmed, stated that "compacted sand inside a bottle is nearly twenty times stronger than bricks". What's more, houses built with these sand-filled bottles are said to possess superior insulation properties. A house could be made from 14,000 sand-filled plastic bottles.The house pictured was constructed at a village in Kaduna State, Nigeria. More information (and some concerns) can be...