Impact

Bottle Bricks

PROBLEM STATEMENT:


-Waste has become one of the largest global concerns creating land, water and air pollution


-A person creates waste of around 3 times their own weight annually


-It is estimated that by 2050, the ocean will contain more plastic by weight than fish


-Globally humans buy a million plastic bottles per minute


-91% of the plastic we use is not recycled


 


PROPOSED SOLUTION: Upcycle plastic waste into Ecobricks and use them to create useful things such as furniture and buildings


 


PROJECT IMPACT: Through the BoTo Project we have,


-Diverted 6000 PET plastic bottles and 3000kg of waste from land-fills


-Sequestered 25000kg of CO2 = CO2 sequestered by 1000 trees/ year


-Encouraged waste segregation amongst 700 families 


-Trained a construction team about innovations in green buildings


-The unique 'BoTo Assembly Method' was developed using a combination of bamboo, wire-mesh, mud, fibre waste to build with the Ecobricks.


-The bamboo and wire-mesh superstructure was constructed first. Ecobricks were then added to the wall panels. The Ecobricks were then mud-plastered to avoid sun-exposure and prevent plastic photodegradation


-The final cabin has a mix of upcycled, recycled and natural materials. We have used natural bamboo framework, mud-plastered walls and stone floor; the upcycled Ecobrick wall panels and the recycled tetrapack roofing sheets. This helped us keep a low carbon footprint.


-The cabin is now being used by the dedicated security guards protecting this football ground!


 


HUB ACTIVITIES:





  • Workshops were conducted with 50 schools to result in 700 children making 6000 ecobricks




  • Quality checks were conducted by the hub to select the top 300 ecobricks to build a security cabin




  • The unique 'BoTo Assembly Method' was developed using a combination of bamboo, wire-mesh, mud, fibre waste to build a structure with the Ecobricks 




  • The final cabin has a mix of upcycled, recycled and natural materials which result in an overall low carbon footprint




 



COLLABORATORS


Public sector (local government); Private partners (Pepsi); NGOs (to create eco-brick and deliver sessions); Schools (with teachers and children who helped create the Ecobricks); Volunteers (Shapers, Versoa beach clean-up drive volunteers); Architects/ designers and contractors (who helped build the Security Cabin)


Short term goal : To reduce plastic waste in the city and to create a usable cabin space with ecobricks for security guards. 


 


Long term Goal : To set this structure as an example for more structures in Mumbai and other cities. All details available at https://gsmumbaihub.wixsite.com/boto