A Nigerian NGO builds earthquake-proof houses from recycled plastic bottles

How cool would it be if we could provide affordable and quality housing and help the youth in our communities while preserving the planet?

The well-named Nigerian NGO DARE (Developmental Association for Renewable Energies) accepted this challenge and had the idea to build houses using locally harvested plastic bottles.

Each house’s construction requires 14,000 sand-filled bottles. The builders hold these bottles together with mud, traditionally used to build houses in the region, and lattice-patterned strings.

According to their creators, these houses are 18 times stronger than brick and can withstand earthquakes or even bullets. They are pretty, too!

While the ecological benefits of this technique are obvious, it’s not the whole story.

The project employs out-of-school and jobless youth to collect the bottles, fill them with sand and mount the structure. Last but not least, houses built with this “bottle-brick” technology cost only a third of the usual price in the region since raw materials are virtually free.

Nigeria is the 7th most populated country on Earth and is expected to climb to 2nd place by 2100. Therefore, this kind of holistic initiative could be crucial for the future of this country ✨