How discarded plastic bottles are turned into affordable houses in Nigeria
The project not only addresses the housing shortage, but also cleans up the streets as well.
The plastic bottles used as bricks are interconnected with ropes to hold them together and prevent cracks from affecting the building for years, while adding colour and beauty.
The National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis (NCEAS) estimates that by 2025 there will be at least 100 bags of plastic per foot of coastline in the world. According to the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration, plastic debris kills an estimated 100,000 marine mammals annually, as well as millions of birds and fishes.
In this hopeless situation, Nigeria's jobless youth are bringing beautiful innovations into recycling plastic through their eye-catching plastic houses. The houses are built with earth-filled bottles that are used as bricks.
The plastic bottles, used as bricks are interconnected with ropes to hold them together and prevent cracks from affecting the building for years, while adding colour and beauty.
A mud mixture of sharp and laterite is used to fill the plastic bottles, which serve as blocks to build the plastic house.
The foundation is laid for the construction of a plastic farm house at Pyakasa construction site Abuja, Nigeria.
Some experts argue that a bottle house is both durable and economically feasible, with each structure costing one third of what a concrete building or house would cost.
Abuja Sani, an engineer and projects coordinator at the Development Association of Renewable energy, explains that plastic houses conduct far less heat and may never require an air conditioner.
With Nigeria's unemployment rate reaching an all-time high of 23.1 percent in the third quarter of 2018, the Developmental Association of Renewable Energies hopes to help youths learn skills and find jobs.
Many locals have begun to appreciate the importance of turning plastic bottles into homes as the huge amount of plastics in the environment harms birds, marine animals, and fish.
In Nigeria millions of plastic bottles are dumped into waterways and landfills each year causing pollution, erosion, irrigation blockages and health problems, but Yahaya Almed’s Developmental Association of Renewable Energies is turning them into building blocks and making the housing smart and affordable.
Copyright © 2024 TRT World.