Two City-based entrepreneurs have come up with a solution to reuse
plastic bottles as an alternative to bricks in rural house
construction.
The average time for a plastic bottle to completely degrade is at
least 450 years. It can even take some bottles 1,000 years to
biodegrade! Ninety per cent of bottles are not even recycled and are
simply thrown around, which is not only causing environmental hazards
but also indirectly responsible for various problems like clogging of
drains. Bottles made with Polyethylene Terephthalate (PET or PETE)
will never biodegrade.
To find a solution to this growing problem, City-based entrepreneurs;
Aruna Kappagantula and her husband Prashant Lingam, founders of
Bamboo House India (BHI), have come up with a solution to reuse these
plastic bottles as an alternative to bricks in rural house construction.
The duo, known for their eco-friendly and social innovations such as
bamboo structures, wants to prove that bottle can be alternative for
brick.
“A 225sqft house of 15ft x 15ft size was constructed with around
4,000 bottles in 15 days at a cost of `65,000. We procured these bottles
from scrap dealers in for a rupee initially, and even spend `3-4 per
bottle towards the end due to scarcity of bottles, says Prashant.
Explaining the costs involved, he said, “The same house can be
constructed at a cost of `35,000-`50,000 based on the availability of
resources in villages and can sustain for at least 30 years like any
other house. We took this as an experiment and constructed the house to
show this will be a feasible and viable alternative. With abundance of
mud, cow dung, low cost labour and local sourcing of bottles, this
method can definitely evolve as affordable housing.”
The basic skeleton was built with bamboo, and entire walling was done
with vertical and horizontal placement of bottles with mud for thermal
insulation and strength and plastering was done with mud and cow dung
with final coat of cement plaster.
“A plastic bottle costs a rupee, whereas each cement brick costs
around `10 and each red brick costs around `5 apart from high
consumption of cement. The amount of heat bricks generate is higher.
With the heavy usage of mud and cow dung, the house has a natural
cooling effect and fan is not required in non-summer days,” he explains.
“In terms of strength, performance is equal to bricks and may be
better. We have requested IIT Delhi for further testing of this process
and we will be shortly sending bottle wall panels for testing to the
campus to further refine the process,” says Prashant.
“Usage of plastic bottles in construction is practiced globally.
Schools and houses are constructed with these bottles in Africa. In
India, nothing much happened on this front. Earlier, there were two
similar experiments as part of education and NGO initiatives in the
country. However, nobody took this an alternative for mainstream rural
housing.
“Initially people might have apprehension about building bamboo and
bottle houses, but we are sure that with time this concept will surely
catch up.
BHI wants to substitute bricks with bottles for our current
eco-friendly green house orders like guest houses, pent houses and
restaurants. It also has plans to help villagers of Rampachodavaram
(agency area) with the know how and construction of bottle-bamboo
houses.
When asked about practicing it in to mainstream apartment
constructions, he said, “It is not bricks but beams and columns take the
weight of the house. Plastic bottle walls can be confidently integrated
especially where the wall acts as a partition, such as bathroom walls.
“There is a desperate need for government bodies to test and validate
these methods by which this can taken in to a larger scale for not only
affordable but also for sustainable eco-friendly housing,” says
Prashant. BHI has also plans to promote the concept among schools and
colleges to make the next generation think beyond bricks and cement.
Advantages
- Low cost
- Non-Brittle – Unlike bricks
- Absorbs abrupt shock loads
- Bio climatic
- Re-usable
- Less construction material
- Easy to build
- Green Construction
