Background

Environmental experts say Nigeria, a country of some 160 million, throws out about three million plastic bottles daily. According to Trade Invest Nigeria the area of Lagos alone produces 9,000 tonnes of waste each day, with the bottles being dumped into waterways and landfill each year causing pollution, erosion, irrigation blockages, and health problems. Moreover, each plastic bottle takes on average 450 years to biodegrade.

The country is also grappling with a deficit of 16 million housing units that requires a staggering 45 trillion naira ($300 billion) to meet, according to Nigeria’s Federal Mortgage Bank. As a recent UN projection from 2013 predicts, the country’s population is expected to surpass that of the US by 2050, making it the third most populous country by the end of this century – and housing shortage ever-more menacing.

Idea

Across the world complex sustainable technologies are being researched to provide futuristic solutions to the common problem of excess waste. In the village of Sabon Yelwa the Developmental Association for Renewable Energies (DARE) has instigated an ingenious scheme to transform the region’s litter problem into a positive future for the community through the construction of new residences.

Twenty-five houses constructed from recycled plastic bottles filled with sand are being built on land donated by a Greek businessman and environmentalist. Each house – with one bedroom, living room, bathroom, toilet and kitchen – uses an estimated 7,800 plastic bottles. This “bottle brick” technology that started nine years ago in India, South and Central America, is perfectly suited to Nigeria’s intensely hot climate as the sand provides an insulating layer, keeping room temperatures low and creating a fireproof and earthquake-resistant wall. One of the project leaders claims that the compacted sand inside a bottle is nearly 20 times stronger than bricks. And bullet proof, which may also prove another attraction in more insecure parts of the north.

Challenge

The two main construction materials – plastic bottles and sand – are not only at the core of the idea, but also the main challenges.

As most water in Nigeria is sold in small plastic bags, and bottled water only accounts for about 20-25% of official sales (the equivalent of up to 500m litres a year), bottles are a rather scarce resource. And they are actually sought after by street vendors using them as packaging for produce like peanuts. So far, the bottles used are therefore currently sourced from hotels, restaurants, homes and foreign embassies.

Some expressed concern about the amount of sand needed for the new houses. And usually, as demand rises, so do prices. To prevent unnecessary expenses and people from looking for sand from digging everywhere, the bottles are (now) being filled with dry soil or construction waste, not sand.