[Greenbuilding] Fwd: Plastic-Bottle Schools on a Shoestring Budget

[Sacie Lambertson]

Remember that article about an interesting useful cheap way to get light
into a slum dwelling (and all the nonsense it elicited?), well, here's
another good greenbuilding idea along the same lines.  Sacie

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* Your one-good-
thing-a-day email *         SEPTEMBER 19, 2011
BROUGHT TO YOU BY
     Guatemalan Schools Built from Bottles, Not
Bricks<http://good.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=5b63a0823e3b9c105434c46d7&id=d120875058&e=68dc574afc>

[image: Hug it Forward]<http://good.us2.list-manage1.com/track/click?u=5b63a0823e3b9c105434c46d7&id=457c480e73&e=68dc574afc>

The cost of building new classrooms and schools shouldn't prohibit students
in the developing world from accessing a quality education, but new
construction, even using inexpensive materials like cinder block, can run up
a five-digit bill in construction costs. Now, Hug It
Forward<http://good.us2.list-manage1.com/track/click?u=5b63a0823e3b9c105434c46d7&id=46d408aaed&e=68dc574afc>,
a nonprofit in Guatemala, has figured out how to build new schools on a
shoestring budget by turning the plastic bottles that litter the
countryside's villages into raw construction materials.

A plastic school might sound like it's better suited for Barbies than for
people, but the technology—developed by the Guatemalan nonprofit Pura
Vida<http://good.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=5b63a0823e3b9c105434c46d7&id=e22c313f42&e=68dc574afc>—is
actually quite clever and allows for schools to be built for less than
$10,000. The plastic bottles are stuffed with trash, tucked between
supportive chicken wire, and coated in layers of concrete to form walls
between the framing. The bottles make up the insulation, while more
structurally sound materials like wood posts are used for the framing.

One added bonus of the nonprofit's work is educating local children about
the environment by helping them gather the bottles that end up in their
schools' walls. "They create the school that in turn creates opportunities
for them," Hug It Forward staff write on the group's website. A
two-classroom schoolhouse built by Hug it Forward in Granados used up 5,000
bottles, which otherwise would've kicked around the town's street or ended
up in a trash heap. Hug it Forward has already built 12 schools around the
country, with four more in the works.

Where else could plastic bottle schools make a difference?
Let us know on GOOD.is<http://good.us2.list-manage2.com/track/click?u=5b63a0823e3b9c105434c46d7&id=885a97c0d6&e=68dc574afc>

*Photo courtesy of Hug it Forward
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