Fantastic without the plastic

The amount of plastic bottles and cans generated globally that ends up in landfill is estimated to be around 340bn. That is a lot of bottles. We’ve been working with SodaStream to raise awareness of the environmental impacts of plastic bottles. We’ve found communities in the world who have turned this plastic waste mountain into eco-friendly initiatives. Some of the examples were too good not to share:

1.    The house that plastic built

Meet Ingrid Vaca Diez, the Lawyer-turned-Builder who uses tens of thousands of soda bottles to construct homes for those who need them. This incredible woman was flown in to help with the recovery after the Haitian earthquake in January 2010. So far she has completed 10 homes, including at least six in Bolivia, one of the poorest countries in Latin America, and one in Argentina.

The process: Once the bottles are filled a house can be ready in 15 days. A 1,829-square-foot house would take around 36,000 bottles; each filled with sand or discarded materials to construct. The bottles are then stacked and she coats each wall with a natural adhesive such as expired powder milk, horse manure or linseed oil.

360,000 bottles saved so far!

2.    The fish fight back over plastic marine waste

A fish sculpture constructed from discarded plastic bottles was erected on Botafogo beach in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, on June 19, 2012.

The sculpture was put in place as part of the UN Conference on Sustainable Development, or Rio+20, which ran in the city through to June 22. The giant fish served as a reminder for beach-goers to recycle their plastic bottles in order to reduce the amount of waste ending up in our oceans.

3.    Plastic bottles you can fit your legs into

A clever technique that transforms approximately 25 PET plastic bottles into one pair of Billabong Recycler Boardshorts threatens to kick-start an unexpected future of recycled clothing.

They won their third SIMA Environmental Product of the Year, and to date have recycled more than 51 million plastic bottles into over 2 million yards of fabric for the boardshorts.

4.    Bottles bring a ray of hope to disadvantage Philippines

My Shelter Foundation, a Philippines-based NGO aiming to provide light to 1 million of the homes that are without light or live on the threshold of having their electricity shut down, have utilised a very innovative idea to make a real difference.

With just a plastic bottle and some water, the locals who live in very underprivileged conditions can be equipped with 50-watt light bulbs using the bright Philippines sun.

Having partnered with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the US, they came up with this simple idea that has made such a positive change to these people’s lives.

Aim to have fitted over 1m bottle light bulbs across the Philippines
 

5.    Plastic bottles to keep Africa connected

Kenyan designers transform a plastic bottle into a mobile phone charger.
All you need to do is add boiling water to the bottle and let the mini Blackbeard Unidirectional Constant Turbine (BUCT) produce 5-watt of green energy, as the temperature keeps changing frequently.

The ‘Bottle Charger’ can power your Smartphone for half an hour with just a cup of steaming water. With over 200 million mobile phone users in Africa living in homes without electricity, the Bottle Charger could help them stay connected.

The invention has the potential to save millions of plastic bottles across Africa.

GBM and SodaStream love environmentally friendly solutions but it would be even better if we could all reduce the number of plastic bottles we use in the first place. If you know of any other smarter, greener or fairer inventions, please share your thoughts and the best ones will win a new SodaStream. 

Giles Robertson is founder of Green Banana Marketing Ltd and Chairman of the Marketing Society Charity Group. Email [email protected] and Tweet @gogreenbanana.