Some Nigerians are building earthquake-proof homes from plastic bottles, turning trash into a sustainable and affordable housing material. The homes are made by filling plastic bottles with sand and stacking them like bricks, bound by mud and string. The homes are 20 times stronger than regular bricks, bulletproof, and insulated from the heat.
@haritulsidas What provides the earthquake resistance? Is it the round shape of the bottles that form a kind of interlocking. If the string is organic - such as cotton - doesn't the string decay.
Here in California adobe bricks (and anything stacked without interlocking reinforcement) has not fared well in earthquakes.
@karlauerbach I'm guessing the shape and composition of the "sand compactly packed in plastic bottles" is why "the homes have 20 times the strength of bricks."
(The quotes are from Yahaya Ahmed of Nigeria’s Development Association for Renewable Energies by way of
Sethuraman S in the linked UPWORTHY article.)
Hari Tulsidas
Karl Auerbach
Acin on .art