My plastic house is bullet proof – Environmentalist

In an effort to combat climate change and reduce the growing number of plastic bottle wastes, Kaduna-based environmentalist, who converted 14,800 plastic bottles into a house, has said the building is not only fire and bulletproof but is also earthquake resistant.

The environmentalist, Engineer Yahaya Ahmed, said the need to reduce the volume of plastic waste polluting the environment and causing diseases informed his decision to build a house with plastic waste.

Through innovation and modern technology, Ahmed said he converted 14,800 plastic bottles into a house located at Unguwan Yalwa community along the Kaduna-Zaria highway.

The house, Arewa Trust Weekly reports, comprises three rooms, a toilet and a kitchen, which according to the builder can last for 300 years irrespective of the ecological challenges and is 20 times stronger than brick walls.

Touted to be the first plastic bottle house in Nigeria, it  was constructed after empty plastic bottles were filled with sand and later arranged and linked together at the neck by an intricate network of string.

Speaking with our correspondent, Ahmed who is also the Director, Developmental Association of Renewable Energies in Nigeria (DARE) said: “The house is very cheap to construct especially with the amount of wasted plastic bottles on our streets. The 14,800 bottles we used to construct the house were sourced from waste.”

“We filled each plastic bottle with sand and placed in a position, the way blocks are arranged but in circular fashion because with the bottles, it is often more convenient to build in a circular fashion as the circular shape adds strength to the walls while providing a very artistic and pleasing appearance. Any person with masonry skills can be used as labourer in the construction,” he further said.

Ahmed said the house was constructed as part of efforts to encourage recycling of waste materials in the country as well as create jobs and ensure a safer environment. “It is fireproof, bulletproof and earthquake resistant, it also adapts to all kinds of climate change,” he said.

The director further noted that he has trained many youths on how to construct a house from plastic water bottle waste adding that more youths are being trained across the country and in some parts of Africa.