plastic-bottles as building bricks
How to use pastic bottles as building blocks
There are diffent kind of ways to use a plasticbottle as a building block.More widespread is the use of filled PET bottles to give them more weight and support.
This follows the idea of a building block characteristics strong and heavy. It makes sence, if you build without a constuction support in sometims heavy storming areas.
In zanzibar even filling material is raw, sand ist extraordinary expensiv.
If you place the bottles in a wooden frame like in the waterbottle watertower project, filling the bottles is not necessary.
When layering to a wall, the feeling of lightweight empty bottles and cement mortar is funny. When hardened, the bottles, arranged in pairs in rows, become solid walls.
None in which one you can beats nails, but one which is wind and waterproof.
waterbottle watertower
project #3
What do you do with all the plastic trashing the world?
Heroic approaches, such as precious plastic, are worthy of praise, but the PET bottle's plastic is particularly difficult to make a profit. There is still the idea to produce frisbees but just from the lits. Right now, selling shredded mixed plastic to China, is the best solution for Zanzibar, still the garden of wonders also wants to offer a possible long-term solution for the plastic bottle problem.
#chance
While ideas like lamps in corrugated iron roofs, plant pots, local juice and others need clean PET bottles. For the bottle house approach no clean PET bottles are necessary to build.
The “waterbottle watertower project” aims to show that there is still room and potential in the downgrade chain of water bottles. After a first reuse, such as storing juices, foods or similar, the non-reusable bottles are collected in the next step and used as building blocks in a building (house, tower ...).
Comparing 6 bottles to a building block reduces the cost divided by factor 50. A noteworthy saving, which helps to turn a short-lived product into a long-lasting one.
Walls ready, power ready, water runnig
everything was ready...
The installation and commissioning of the water tower took another 4 weeks. First the roof was to be repaired, the last 30 cm wall was to be erected, the solar panels and the electrics were to be installed. At the end the water tank as well as the connections in the garden and with the neighbours connected. For one night there was light and toilet flushing. It was like paradise. When I came back the following day from Stone Town it had already happened. The roof had already let too much water through and made the beams rotten. Four had broken through under the load of 1.7 tons.
The following four days were extremely exhausting for everyone. But now there is a roof again and the walls are (probably) rebuilt.
You never stop learning and hopefully you only make such mistakes once. The water and electricity system are still in their infancy and until everything runs smoothly the boys still have to deal extensively with the individual elements.
The water-bottle-wall-project is nevertheless a success. Despite the long construction time the walls are solid against weather influences. The rooms created are for the storage of tools and material. Even for a bed in the upper area where the batteries for the solar plant are set up it was enough. So Mohamedi has a weatherproof retreat with light and electricity for music and telephone.
The end
fall and stand up
Now it has happened again. Two months after the roof had already collapsed, the intermediate floor, which also consisted of too much cement, has now also collapsed after the repairs. The intermediate floor tore down the walls at the same time. The basic scaffolding with water tank and solar panels is still standing. Everything else is scrap. The end for the waterbottle-watertower. Now my crew do it traditionally with stones and cement earth and wood.
But I know what went wrong and will try this construction method on another building again.
