Every year, millions of tons of discarded plastic waste end up in landfills, finding its way into water bodies and open areas, causing irreversible damage to ecosystems. There are people, however, who turn this trash into something useful to help the environment. A case in point is the house built with plastic waste for Cindy Mora Abarca, a mother hailing from Costa Rica.
Cindy saved money for nine years to buy a plot in the Lámparas neighbourhood of Alajuelita, near San José, Costa Rica. After securing a loan, she bought this piece of land, but eventually, after repaying the amount, she lacked money to construct the house.
To make her dream of building a house come true, she contacted nonprofit housing organization Habitat for Humanity Costa Rica to construct a permanent residence for herself and her six-year-old son, Fabrizio. According to econews, “her family was selected based on socioeconomic criteria and the site’s technical suitability.”
The NGO paired her with Procter & Gamble, the local organization Urbarium, and recycled materials group Ekojunto to begin the construction in April 2018. The partnership between these organizations and groups decided to use recycled plastic waste to build an affordable and eco-friendly house for Cindy and her son.
According to reporting by La Nación, the house built with plastic waste used approximately 7 tons of recycled plastic waste provided by Procter and Gamble’s corporate social responsibility programme. The discarded plastic bottles and packaging were recycled and transformed into 850 interlocking blocks known as Bloqueplas. These molded blocks were stacked together to build the walls.
However, these interlocking blocks alone did not build the entire home. The project used traditional construction materials for the foundation, electrical wiring, and plumbing. Once the structure was completely constructed, the team covered the exposed walls with stucco and paint to give the house a modern façade. The construction finished in May 2018, and the project team handed over the keys to the new house to Cindy.
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The media coverage presented distorted information regarding the number of workers who volunteered for this project. One media outlet stated that 800 volunteers built the house, whereas the official reporting stated that employees of Procter and Gamble volunteered 800 hours of labor, rather than 800 individuals. It is crucial to point out this distortion as both sources completely change the narrative.
As we mentioned before, Habitat for Humanity Costa Rica selected Cindy based on certain criteria, while Urbanium coordinated the local implementation of the Bloqueplas system. The volunteers then contributed their labor to finish the construction. Hence, this eco-friendly house built from plastic waste was the result of a coordinated partnership among a housing organization, a local organization, a private company, and volunteers.
Via: The Times Of India