Given the post about the enormous world-wide production of plastic bottles, it is heartening to read of a potential use for at least the 1.5 litre variety (https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2017/jun/30/house-tateh-built-sand-filled-recycled-waste-plastic-bottles-western-sahara-). It also reminded me of the UK greenhouse shown above that also uses old water bottles. An engineer called Tateh has utilised sand-filled plastic bottles to construct rounded (wind resistant) houses in a refugee camp in Algeria. The houses are painted white to reflect the Western Saharan heat and the material is reportedly more durable than traditional sun-dried bricks (there are occasional floods as well as the wind erosion). As it takes 6000 bottles to build a house, a rough calculation reveals that the world generates sufficient plastic bottles per minute to construct more than 150 such dwellings in desert locations. These houses could also have an associated greenhouse (also rounded?) and one could also probably produce viable structures in some sea-side locations.
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