January 28, 2016

One hundred years ago, a Belgian born American, Leo Bakelite discovered plastic.This great discovery came as a beacon light of hope to millions of us. It came as a joyous daybreak as a supplement to many other materials.

But one hundred years later, we must face the tragic fact that plastic waste is on the rise. The life of human being and marine is sadly crippled by the hazards of plastic waste. One hundred years later, it is depleting the fossil fuels of our planet and the ozone layer.

My article emphasizes the importance that if we reuse all the plastics, which we already have, we need not make a single more.

I had to creatively explore to make the best out of discarded plastic bottles. In one of my projects, I used waste plastic bottles for construction of a green house. Yes, it is hard to think a bottle being used as a brick. But a compacted sand-filled bottle is as strong as a brick, and whatever you can do with clay brick or a cement block, you can do with a bottle too. This technology is called 'Brick Technology'.

All that I used was 1.5 litre and 0.5 litre capacity waste plastic bottles, dry sand, sealant and turf.

Such a plastic green house has a lot of advantages.

These houses are more energy efficient than the clay bricks.

The use of plastic reduces the CO2 emission that happens during the baking of a clay brick in the factories.Hence, it mitigates globalwarming.

These houses once made lasts for 300- 400 years because plastic takes that many years to decompose. That means, it practically does not decompose at all. It is a sustainable material.

The mountains from which the granite is blasted can also be saved too.

My house is 'bioclimatic' in design, which means it is suitable for any type of climate. The sand in the bottle absorbs heat and provides thermal storage. When the air temperature of the room goes below the temperature of the wall, the sand will release the heat and warm the room and the reverse way is also true.

These houses cost only 1/3rd of concrete houses and are 20 times stronger than a wall constructed of concrete blocks. The reduction in the final cost comes from bottles being used as pillars, the walls and the ceiling.

Additionally, they have the capacity to absorb abrupt shock loads. This feature is suitable for earthquake prone zones.

We need about 14,000 bottles to build a two-bed room hall. If all the houses were built of plastic bricks we would obtain social equity and there would be no gap between the rich and the poor.

If this message of ecological house reaches every home and every nation we will be joining hands in building a sustainable future for generations to come.