randtke
- The Environment
A House Built from Bottles
People around the world guzzle about 50 billion gallons of bottled water a year, and then toss billions of those plastic bottles into the trash heap instead of the recycling bin. Matt Naples and Peter Zummo think they can take this lemon of a fact and turn it into lemonade—or rather, take those discarded water bottles and turn them into chairs, shelves, or houses for the worlds poor.
1.15.2009 at 10:27am - Comment by randtkeIt seems to me that it's not a far cry for someone to fill these bottles with concrete rather than sand. Then the plastic degrading becomes a moot point. Concrete is going to be cost prohibitive for some, but not all, and being able to build quality in units may make the investment seem more worth while than would building a tiny lump of concrete here and a tiny lump there with the goal of eventually having a wall. With bottles, you just switch out from sand when you can afford to, but you always have a wall.
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December 2009: Best of What's New
In our December issue, Popular Science names the 100 best innovations of the year: bombproof wallpaper, self-parking cars, the fastest helicopter, and 97 more. Plus inventor profiles and videos.
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