Houses made of waste changing lives in South America
by SciDev.Net
Juan Felipe Román, together with his family and the founders of Botellas de Amor: Kelly Rodríguez and John Berrío. Credit: Fundación Botellas de Amor
Homes made of discarded plastic bottles, construction waste and old tires are being built across Latin America as new technologies help turn municipal waste into sustainable bricks and tiles.
Across the region, recycling firms are turning their hands to construction, tackling a pollution problem and a housing crisis in one fell swoop.
"I have learned a lot about how to handle household waste to reduce the impact it generates on the environment," said Javier Sebastian Folmer, a resident of the municipality of Crespo, in the province of Entre Ríos, just north of the Argentinian capital Buenos Aires.
Folmer, who runs the municipality's Environmental Park, is one of an army of citizens in the region whose perception of waste has been transformed because they became part of the process that recovers it and turns it into raw materials for housing.
Every month, the park receives between 3,000 and 5,000 kilos of plastic bottles discarded by the city's 23,000 inhabitants.
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https://techxplore.com/news/2024-04-houses-south-america.html