As a way of tackling the menace of plastic waste, this talented Ghanaian builds with plastic bottles…
Talk abut making the most out of recycling. A certain Ghanaian man has discovered an unusual but tactful way of putting recycled plastic bottles to good use. Paul Coffie Bebobru, founder of Toa House has come out with an innovation to help curb plastic waste; using plastic bottles to build houses.
In Ghana of today, the people are faced with the menace of plastic waste; a problem whose impact is mostly felt during the rainy season. This is because during the rainy season, most of these plastics end up in some major drains in the country, causing flooding in some areas. This has continued to prevail in both rural and urban areas, as there is the absence of plastic bottle recycling plant in the country.
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But Mr. Paul Beboru has seized an opportunity, from this unfortunate situation of an environment with little or no knowledge of recycling. Instead of litering the nation with plastic wastes, Mr. Beboru discovered a way of recycling them in such a way it would benefit the society.
Founder of Tao House during an interaction with TV3, took them through the processes involved in building strong houses through the use plastic bottles. First off, it is estimated that a plastic bottle can take approximately 300 years to decompose. Also a small house, he explained can use as many as 10,000 bottles, waste.
After gathering the bottles from different places, including streets and rubbish dumps, they are assembled and gotten ready for the building process. To achieve a balanced result, disposable plastic bottles should be of uniform sizes. These bottles are then filled with sieved sand to make it fine and compact, and the bottles sealed with the corks.
A group of women fill the plastic bottles with sand before masons use clay or mortar to arrange the bottles to be firm just like it is done in the case of block laying. They are then laid as bricks and then stringed diagonally to get a firm holding.
There is always the presence of gaps when bottles are assembled. For the purpose of building, these gaps are filled with mortar. The foundation is then left for a few hours so that the cement will solidify. Building can start after the foundation and pillars have been made.
Not only that its is easy to use, plastic bottles have been proven to be cost-effective and not brittle and exceptionally durable. Studies and experiments have been done in this innovation and the finding is that, this type of building is 20 times stronger than the block and brisk building, according to Mr. Paul.
It helps to lower the cost of building and by clearing empty bottles, it helps the environment too. It is claimed that the buildings can withstand earthquakes and bullets.
Now instead of spending a lot of money on cement and blocks, wasted plastic bottles can now be used. The plastic bottles replace the use of cement blocks and bricks. Building with plastic bottles Mr. Paul said, is 33 percent cheaper as compared to the traditional form of building.
With proper promotion and awareness, there is bound to be a reduction in the massive rate of plastic waste. Plastics, which ends up in some major drains in the country, can now be put to good use; and this will in turn, help the country solve its plastic waste threat.
This can be said to be a good source of employment for the ordinary Ghanaian, seeing as it requires a lot of man power. This is indeed a profound description for; making money out of helping the environment.
Mr. Paul during the interaction called for sensitization programs that will be aimed at changing people’s perception of how legit plastic buildings can be. This is because people tend to look down on the idea, having gotten used to the expensive option of cement and blocks. People’s acceptance of this new innovation will only mean that; more will be done in such a way that the whole society will benefit.
Mr. Paul also revealed that his company has some ongoing projects at hand. Some of them include; a warehouse for Booomers International Limited (makers of bamboo bicycles) at Jamasi in the Ashanti Region, and an innovation hub for the West Africa Senior High School. He also said the company is training artisans in the technology and would be deployed to other regions for more training.
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