Nigeria's environmental friendly plastic bottle house attracts tourists

London, Nov 10 (ANI): A house built from discarded plastic bottles is proving to be a tourist attraction in Nigeria.

Hundreds of people, including government officials and traditional leaders have been coming to see how the walls were built in the round architectural shape popular in northern Nigeria.

The bottles, packed with sand, are placed on their side, one on top of the other and bound together with mud.

The real beauty of the house is its outside wall as the round bottoms of the exposed bottles produce a lovely design.

But for those behind the project, its environmental benefits are what are most important.

Twenty-five houses, which will be available to rent, are being built on this estate on land donated by a Greek businessman and environmentalist.

Each house with one bedroom, living room, bathroom, toilet and kitchen uses an estimated 7,800 plastic bottles.

This "bottle brick" technology started nine years ago in India, South and Central America, providing a cost-effective, environmentally-friendly alternative to conventional building bricks.

Yahaya Ahmed of Nigeria's Development Association for Renewable Energies, estimates that a bottle house will cost one third of what a similar house made of concrete and bricks would cost.

The bottle houses are also ideally suited to the hot Nigerian climate because the sand insulates them from the sun's heat, helping to keep room temperatures low.

And because of the compact sand, they are bullet-proof, which may also prove another attraction in more insecure parts of the north.

A firm concrete foundation is laid to ensure that the structure is firm and stable and the sand is sieved to make sure it is compact.

The bottles for these houses are currently being sourced from hotels, restaurants, homes and foreign embassies, the BBC reported.

The project is also hoping to help to remove children who do not go to school from their life on the streets. (ANI)