Bottle House on Instructables

Note: I'm going to build a house with sand and dirt filled bottles (called "bottle bricks.") I think cleaning up the community by stuffing the bottles with trash is also a good idea, and perhaps those bottles could be used for fences, garden walls and non-load bearing walls. Can't wait to try this! I've been collecting ideas, designs and techniques for years on my eco-architecture blog and now it's just about time! CT 

Before:

 

This instructable tells you how to build a pavilion with these bottles.

1. Your first step is to collect as many discarded plastic bottles as you can..They can be of various capacities.

2. Next step is to find a place where you can get a hell load of dry sand (finer,the better).

3. Next process is to take the bottles, fill them with sand, sealed and then paste them with a mixture made of earth, clay, sawdust and a little cement to provide additional strength and durability.The following video shows how to fill the bottle.

4. Now you are all set.Always start with the pillar.You can have as many pillars as you want,but not less than 3.

5. Dig a cylindrical pit about 60cm in depth.The radius should be atleast 10cm more than the length of the bottle that you are going to use for constructing the pillar.

6. Make a cement bed(about 4cm thickness)in the pit.Insert an long iron/steel rod at the centre.Tie a long and strong thread to the rod. Now we are going to lay 10 or 11 bottles around this rod.For this,First lay a bottle on the bed such that the bottle is radially oriented towards the centre.(i.e.,the cap is oriented towards the rod).

7. Take the thread and make a knot around the neck of the bottle you just laid.Put the next bottle in similar way keeping in mind that the caps of the 2 bottles touch each other.Make a knot around the 2nd bottle also.Repeat the steps until you lay all the 11 bottles.You have made your first course of bottles.

8. Fill in the gaps between the bottles with rubble and cement.Make the next bed and continue this process till you fill the entire pit.Hurray!your foundation is complete.Leave it for a few hours so that the cement will solidify.

9. After you have made the foundation for all your pillars,you can start building the pillar.Lay the bottles like you did for the foundation,and you will see your pillars rising.You can put broken bricks or other construction wastes between the bottles so that they don't move.

10. Now if you want you can plaster your pillar with cement.This pillar is many times stronger much cheaper than an ordinary pillar made with bricks.

... more:
http://www.instructables.com/id/New-Innovation-in-Construction-using-Waste-Plastic/step2/Step-I/

After:

A Boat Made of Trash ~ Plastiki

http://www.treehugger.com/galleries/2011/05/harrowing-ocean-crossing-of-a-boat-made-of-trash-as-chronicled-in-plastiki.php?page=2

From TreeHugger.com:

The Harrowing Ocean Crossing of a Boat Made of Trash, as Chronicled in Plastiki

plastiki boat construction
luca babini photo

The boat—a 60-foot catamaran—was designed and built by British environmentalist David de Rothschild.

Recycled PET bottles offered a strong, buoyant, material for the hull. The mast was constructed from a recycled aluminum irrigation pipe. Even the sail—woven from recycled PET—was an example of repurposed trash.

The concept seemed sound, but as the six-person crew boarded the ship in San Fransisco on March 20, 2010, Plastiki remained relatively untested. ...more


And much, much more, with photos and video: http://www.treehugger.com/files/2010/03/plastiki_launch.php

Plastiki from Glenn McElhose on Vimeo.

We've been following the progress of the Plastiki for over a year now. In case you've forgotten, it's the pet project of eco-adventurer David de Rothschild and it's a huge boat made from recycled plastic bottles. The vessel has been under construction and late last week, the crew finally unveiled it in the San Francisco Bay. This is the start point for what will be an 11,000 mile trek to Sydney, highlighting the problem of plastic as both a pollutant and design issue.

Made from 12,500 reclaimed plastic bottles, the recycled srPET is a strong, bouyant material. The mast is made from reclaimed aluminum irrigation pipe and the sail is hand-made from reycled PET as well. To top it off, the secondary bonding is reinforced using a newly developed organic glue made from cashew nuts and sugar cane. It's a very green boat, and its credentials don't stop with the construction.

plastiki boat photo
Image via Plastiki

The Plastiki is also an off-grid vessel, relying primarily on renewable energy systems including from solar panels, wind and trailing propeller turbines, and bicycle generators, and utilizing a urine-to-water recovery and rain water catchment system for fresh water sources. Finally, it comes complete with a hydroponic rotating cylinder garden.

WATCH VIDEO: Blue August: Plastic is Forever

Right now, the crew is working on final preparations for their sail across the Pacific ocean. The trip will highlight not only all the plastic in our oceans, but also that waste - especially plastic waste - is a fundamental design flaw and we have to rethink waste as a resource.

Here's de Rothschild talking to TreeHugger's Graham Hill about how the ship is made.

Plastiki from Glenn McElhose on Vimeo.

You can buy a flat-pack kit to build a model of the plastic bottle boat!

http://www.treehugger.com/files/2009/12/plastiki-toy-model.php

When I saw this tweet from @Plastiki this afternoon, "We've released the Plastiki toy [so proud!] and @joshspear has put it front page", I thought surely they haven't built a miniature version of the complex boat famously built out of recycled plastic bottles! How the heck have they done that? As we wait for David De Rothschild and his crew to embark on their high seas adventure to the Gyre, otherwise known as the Pacific Garbage Patch, they have created something to keep us from twiddling our thumbs...

Plastiki-toy-kit.jpg

Flat packed Kit
Calling all kids, model making enthusiasts, and those jealous of David's imminent adventure! The Plastiki toy comes in a suitably sustainable form, not lots of tiny little bits of plastic, but rather a flat packed cardboard kit that you can assemble yourselves to put pride of place on your mantle piece, on your bookshelf or anywhere that takes your fancy, but probably not in your bath, as Josh Spear suggested!

FSC Approved
The Plastiki team tell us that their new toy is "manufactured and designed by Jamily in Manchester UK. The model is made from FSC approved card and printed locally using sustainable vegetable inks. Every stage of the manufacturing process was designed to produce minimal waste and efficient use of energy."

50% Profits to Sculpt The Future Foundation
You can buy one from the online Plastiki shop. It's being sold at the rather hefty price of £18.00, but we love the fact that 50% of profits will be donated to the Sculpt The Future Foundation which promotes "positive environmental change towards global sustainability by supporting creative, innovative and sustainable action."

Plastiki

More on Plastiki Expedition
David de Rothschild Sets Sail on Plastic Ship
David de Rothschild Shows Graham Hill Ways to Turn Plastic From ...
Sailing For Cause: Marine 'Odd-Ventures'
David de Rothschild and The Real Cost of Living (Video)
The TH Interview: David de Rothschild - Part 1
The TH Interview: David de Rothschild - Part 2

more: http://www.treehugger.com/files/2009/12/plastiki-toy-model.php

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plastic bottles, ocean crossing, Lake Atitlan, PET bottles, boat, trash, recycle, TreeHugger.com
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I want to try this at Lake Atitlan!

How to Construct Houses with Plastic Bottles

Posted by: www.instructables.com/id/New-Innovation-in-Construction-using-Waste-Plastic/

Waste bottles for construction? Yes, it is difficult to think of a bottle as a brick. But a mud-filled bottle is as strong as a brick and whatever you can do with a brick, you can do with a bottle too..Plus it has got lots of advantages too...

This project was done as a part of our college activity. The man behind this innovative idea is a german named Andreas Froese,who is also the founder of 'ECO-TEC' .

OFFICIAL WEBSITE : www.eco-tecnologia.com

About ECO-TEC

* Found in 2001 by Andreas Froese Germen citizen and its head quarters is at Honduras Central America.
* ECO-TEC has done more than 50 eco friendly projects at Honduras, Columbia, Bolivia.
* ECO-TEC has experience working with Govt, Non-Govt and International organization.
* ECO-TEC has won lot of environmental awards for innovation.
* Developed technology to build with Polyethylene Terephthalate (PET) plastic bottles which helps to reuse plastic bottles and avoid plastic menace.
* Developed technology to build water tanks with PET bottles.

Being a student of Architecture, I was able to be a part of this innovative construction with Plastic Bottles.

Building with Bottles :

This is an effective solution for reusing the plastic. Bottles have the following advantages over bricks and other construction materials.

1. Low cost - You know how much a bottle costs!
2. Non-Brittle - (Unlike bricks)
3. Absorbs abrupt shock loads - Since they are not brittle,there can take up heavy loads without failure.
4. Bio climatic
5. Re-usable
6. Less construction material
7. Easy to build
8. Green Construction

How to Construct Houses with Plastic Bottles !!

Bottles, bottles everywhere!

When you make a clay brick, the time and the energy used right from mixing the clay to baking it in the kiln and taking into account the firewood used for that, you will see that the bottle brick is far more energy-efficient.

The technology also reduces the carbon emission that happens during the baking of an ordinary brick . The heat generation from cement factories can also be reduced as this technology uses only five percent cement. The foundation for the entire construction is obtained from building waste and so the mountains from which granite is blasted out can be saved too..

PET Bottle can last as long as 300 years (undoubtedly longer than the cement used to bind the bottles together in the walls!).

The following picture is of an ecological house constructed in Honduras using some 8,000 PET bottles, in the process freeing up an estimated 12 cubic meters (m3) in the local landfill.



[Some houses] feature a living roof (sometimes called a green roof) of sod and turf. Such roofs not only have aesthetic appeal, but tend to insulate the house better than conventional roofs, lowering heating and cooling costs. They are also cheaper than conventional roofs.

When wet, the 102 square meter (m2), living roof of the casa ecol can weigh as much as 30 metric tons (Mt, toneladas). The PET bottle walls can support the weight.

Bottles, bottles everywhere!



Comments:


1-30 of 61

Jul 13, 2010. 10:41 AMspark master says:
See old "Mother Earth News" chord wood house there is also a beer can house and they used other stuff as well. benefit of empty sealed up bottle is it becomes an insulator.
REPLY
Jul 12, 2010. 1:16 PMspark master says:
Everything old is NEW again "The Mother Earth News" had articles on this type of construction back in the 1980's (maybe 70's) I do like the instructable though. If I can find the issues where they show it I will let you know the year and issue. People used Chord Wood and bottles and cans and tires. All in an attempt to reuse the unreusable. thanks for posting this, I will visit their website sparkie

(more) www.instructables.com/id/New-Innovation-in-Construction-using-Waste-Plastic/