This Eco-Village Is Being Built From More Than 1 Million Recycled Plastic Bottles

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Recyclable plastic bottles now have a new purpose: to create homes.

The Plastic Bottle Village is a planned 83-acre community in Bocas Del Toro, Panama. The community will consist of 120 homes, all built with plastic bottles as the main component. The village’s creator Robert Bezeau said the idea came to him in a dream, according to the community’s website. One day he woke up and had a vision of what could be done with the more than 35 billion plastic bottles thrown away each year in the U.S. alone.

Photo credit: plasticbottlevillage.com

The project started in August 2015 with a model single-story two-bedroom house. More than 10,000 bottles were used in that single home, according to the village’s website. The village has already started to sell some of the houses in the community.

Plastic bottles are packed inside 2-feet long by 9-feet high wire cages that are 7-inches thick. The cages are then reinforced with rebar. Bezeau said he can make all types of shapes with this configuration—many of the houses have arches and curves. Once the house is built, the walls are then covered with cement and can be painted.

Photo credit: plasticbottlevillage.com

Building homes with plastic bottles has more benefits than just keeping them out of the oceans and landfills. The bottles, which are filled with air, provide insulation, keeping the inside of the house 17 degrees Celsius cooler than the outside temperature with no energy input. Using bottles also makes the homes earthquake-resistant, according to the community’s website.

An average human who lives for 80 years can use a minimum of 14,400 plastic bottles, according to the community’s website. That’s more than enough plastic bottles to build a single-story two-bedroom house.

Watch this NowThis video or visit the project’s GoFundMe page to learn more:

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