While PET beverage packaging is practical and cost effective, most manufacturers and consumers alike are aware of the environmental impact our addiction to PET has on this planet. While we can not eliminate the need for PET bottles, there are more solutions available to recycle PET.
Individual environmentalists and scientists have been working with impoverished communities in Latin America and Caribbean nations using waste PET bottles to build homes. They have demonstrated that by filling bottles with silted sand and with their method of construction, "PET bottles make a tougher, more durable construction material than common concrete blocks used in most Central American building."
PET bottles are either woven together and stacked with reinforcement to make walls or even poured in molds with cement to create modular panels.
Not only has this method proven to be practical and durable, some conversationalists are even making these homes look good!
With an island of PET the size of North America taking shape in the Pacific Ocean and our demand for packaged beverages on the rise, this is just another solution for 3rd world markets to consider.
Sources: Learning Site, Temasactuales, EcoPop
What about the cost of this type of construction vs the cost of regular concrete block construction ?.
ReplyDeleteaccording to one source "By using the [Collecting System] the material cost of the dwelling represent approximately ten times less value in relation to an ordinary dwelling made out of concrete."
ReplyDeleteThere are a couple of different methods being implemented for this type of construction that relate to the size of bottle as well and material used to fill it.
the links to sources below the post contain more details.
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