This House Is Built From 612,000 Plastic Bottles And Can Survive 525Km/h Winds

Dhir Acharya - Jul 23, 2019

The plastic bottles were shredded, melted, and injected with gas to make them a plastic-based foam with several advantages over conventional materials.

Recently, a Canadian firm has completed constructing a house whose exterior walls are made from recycled plastic, which the company claims to be able to survive winds that gust at more than 482 km/h.

The-house-is-built-from-plastic-bottles-1 — The house is built from plastic bottles

The company in question is JD Composites, it built a house with three bedrooms near the Meteghan River in Nova Scotia. Except for the fact that it doesn’t have a garden, trees or a neighbor, this house looks just like a regular accommodation, featuring a minimalist facade and a clean modern design. Its interior is fully furnished, complete with lumber walls covering drywall. However, its exterior makes the house look new, much improved in construction terms.

The company wrapped the house and gave it the reinforced structure using panels of 5.9-inch thickness which are made from about 612,000 plastic soda bottles. The bottles were shredded, melted, and injected with gas to make them become a plastic-based foam with several major advantages over conventional construction materials.

The-bottles-were-shredded-melted-and-injected-with-gas-3 — The bottles were shredded, melted, and injected with gas

The panels offer better insulation in both summer and winter, featuring resistance to mildew and moisture. They not only help reduce plastic waste but also enable construction to be done within days instead of months since the panels are made offsite and we just need to assemble them like a puzzle.

The-panels-are-resistant-to-moisture-and-mildew-4 — The panels are resistant to moisture and mildew

But what makes this material special is their durability to the extreme weather in the coastal area where hurricanes take place every year. The company sent the sample panels to a certification facility where they went through conditions that are similar to a category 5 hurricane whose wind speed can reach 346km/h. The panels survived the wind of up to 525 km/h, the greatest capabilities of the facility’s wind tunnel, so they may survive even stronger winds.

The-house-is-not-more-expensive-than-a-regular-one-5 — The house is not more expensive than a regular one

It costs around Rs 27,600 to build such a house, the same as the cost for regular material plus labor. But with this durability, the house would require less repair over time, and can save us from, reconstruction in case of hurricane attacks.