Bottle Schools





Pepsi partnered with the My Shelter foundation to build this school house made of 9,000 plastic bottles in San Pablo, Philippines. Thousands of volunteers recruited by Pepsi -- collected the used bottles, helped to raise awareness of the Philippines classroom shortage and participated in building the structure. Pepsi's clean-up campaign website, sarapmagbago.com and lots more photos here: facebook.com/pepsisarapmagbago
Photo © Kristel Marie Fuentes Gonzales.






After the 9,000 bottles were collected each 1.5 and 2-litre bottle was filled with adobe (sand, clay, and water with a bit of straw, twigs or manure thrown in). This machine made the filling much easier. Pic: 1.bp.blogspot.com Video: www.youtube.com






The filled bottles set out to dry...






The building process begins. Pic: www.micealiling.com






String is used to keep the bottles in place as the adobe is being applied.
Pic: www.micealiling.com






Ran out of caps...






A bit more cement will be applied and smoothed out.
Photo © Kristel Marie Fuentes Gonzales






Photo © Kristel Marie Fuentes Gonzales






Almost there. The roof is made of compressed tetra packs.
Photo © Kristel Marie Fuentes Gonzales





One wall is made of glass bottles.
Photo © Kristel Marie Fuentes Gonzales





The inside walls were whitewashed.
Pic: campaignbrief.com www.bottleschoolproject.org





Photo © Kristel Marie Fuentes Gonzales
www.bottleschoolproject.org




On the other side of the planet:




In Guatemala, volunteers with the help of the community, build plastic bottle school houses using a construction method pioneered by non-profit Pura Vida. The first plastic bottle school in Guatemala was started by volunteers in the Peace Corps and when they ran out of resources they called on Hug It Forward, an NGO that has now helped build numerous plastic bottle schools accross Guatemala. www.hugitforward.com





First, the students and volunteers stuff the plastic bottles with insulating trash. Each student is asked to collect and fill at least 20 bottles. They stuff each bottle with plastic waste, such as styrofoam, snack wrappers and plastic bags - the more compacted, the sturdier the building blocks and the less garbage remaining on the streets. www.flickr.com






Hugitforward builds bottle schools a different way.
www.hugitforward.com






The stuffed bottles are tied with string to keep them in place. Pictured is the 5th Hug it Forward school, under construction in La Cereza, finished July 2010. www.hugitforward.com






Bottles strung to chicken wire on one side. Now the chicken wire will be placed on this side as well. www.flickr.com






Students stuff waste plastic in between the bottles. www.flickr.com






The older students are called in for the higher work. www.flickr.com






Applying cement to the inside of the building...
Students help sift the sand, mix and then apply cement that was donated. www.flickr.com





And on the outside... Three layers of cement are applied. www.flickr.com






Neater job = better trowel...
This is the 5th Hug it Forward school, under construction in La Cereza, finished July 2010. www.hugitforward.com






This school used metal frames instead of cement posts.
www.hugitforward.com






This one with a thatched roof. www.flickr.com






The final look - you would never know the main ingredient if they did not leave cutouts... www.flickr.com






A cutout. Just a reminder...
www.hugitforward.com





Outside -- under construction. A bench surrounding a tree. www.flickr.com




Bottle Construction ‘How-to’ By Laura Kutner, Peace Corps/Guatemala
Source: www.peacecorps.gov

1. Make sure your community is involved and that you have a safe/approved location to build.
2. Make sure you have a budget and enough funding.
3. Collect and stuff bottles and gather lots of inorganic trash. Each bottle and all of the stuffing material has to be clean (rinsed in water) and dried. If anything is wet or dirty it will become moldy and start to smell. Organic trash, such as paper, cardboard, dirt, and rocks, cannot be used.
4. Set up a frame, foundation, and roof comprised of either wood, metal or cement columns.
5. Start putting chicken wire on the outside of the frame, then work on the inside in sections, putting in the bottles while you slowly connect the inside layer of chicken wire to the outside, securing the bottles tightly.
6. Continue section by section, until bottles are placed, then stuff all empty leftover spaces with inorganic trash.
7. Test the cement mixture (no limestone) to make sure it sticks. Then start placing the first layer of cement.
8. When this dries, start a second layer.
9. Finish with a third layer then lay the flooring.
10. Inaugurate and celebrate!


Hug it Forward's
"The Bottle School Manual" a step-by-step guide to building a bottle school, complete with pictures and diagrams of each stage of the construction process. www.bottleschools.com

Another organization working with plastic bottles in Latin America: www.longwayhomeinc.org
A plastic bottle latrine with composting toilet: catorcekt.wordpress.com


See IG's Plastic Bottle Homes page as well... inspirationgreen.org/plastic-bottle-homes






Hug It Forward - 3 Months of filming compressed into a 3 minute video. This is a good overview of the hard work, dedication, win-wins, and excitement surrounding Bottle Schools.

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Anne
Posts: 9

Hard work
Reply #9 on : Sat May 18, 2013, 22:10:01

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Well done but not making plastic AT ALL is still the ultimate goal.
Best wishes.

monika sharma... india
Posts: 9

Re: Plastic Bottle Schools
Reply #8 on : Wed February 13, 2013, 04:33:49

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love the things this work looks inspiring.

Anonymous
Posts: 9

Re: Plastic Bottle Schools
Reply #7 on : Wed February 13, 2013, 04:32:51

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love the things this work looks inspiring.

florence
Posts: 9

Re: Plastic Bottle Schools
Reply #6 on : Sun January 27, 2013, 15:30:01

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This work looks inspiring. I am gong to the Philippines in a month, are the currently any projects like this that i could help with? I would love to learn more about it. Or any other eco-building techniques.

David Wissink
Posts: 9

Re: Plastic Bottle Schools
Reply #5 on : Sun December 16, 2012, 05:01:26

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Love the work - I want to try to build one of these in Papua New Guinea

fronnie
Posts: 9

Re: Plastic Bottle Schools
Reply #4 on : Tue August 21, 2012, 21:41:59

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I absolutely love the things i see people doing on here! My kids keep begging me to let them do products to recycle stuff at home, and this gives me so many ideas that could occupy us as a family. the sheds and huts I see being built on here would be a great opportunity for any child to learn how to do with their families! If you have plans or directions you could email me teaching how to build different structures using the glass and plastic bottles, I would love to learn.

Paul Sharp
Posts: 9

PET bottle greenwash!
Reply #3 on : Thu August 02, 2012, 22:25:29

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This is a real shame, Pepsi is using this as greenwash/social responsability.
15 years ago these bottles would not have existed in the Philipines, refillable glass would have been used instead. Now bottlers are moving towards disposable plastic. It's nice to build schools, but can enough buildings ever be built from plastic bottles to justify Pepsi and Coke trashing the environment with throwaway bottles? this is a building material that should not exist.

ASHA
Posts: 9

Use of pet bottles as construction material
Reply #2 on : Fri March 16, 2012, 09:56:24

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I am taking a seminar on this topic and i want some informations about this construction... and about the characteristic properties of the houses made of bottles.

Patti Stouter
Posts: 9

plastic trash in mesh tubes
Reply #1 on : Tue June 07, 2011, 06:06:15

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So glad to see one site posting all this info about bottle walls!
I've been experimenting with using plastic mesh tubing to hold a variety of plastic trash. Even non-recyclable plastic scrap including foam can be used as filler in walls. I've sewn one side of the mesh tubes to the next one, and then used earthen plaster between them to stiffen the row of tubes up. A plaster of light straw-clay then firms it into a plane. I would use earthen or lime plaster inside and cement stucco or a lime plaster on the outside.
See my proposal athttp://www.jovoto.com/contests/300house/ideas/12646
and I'll have more info at my website www.SimpleEarthStructures.com
We need to use that trash that's in the way!