First Recycled-Plastic Home Delivered in Choco After Earthquake in Colombia
In a record eleven days, a family from the department of Choco that was affected by the Aug. 10 earthquake received a house to replace the one that was brought down by the earthquake. The event constitutes an important alternative that could ease the situation of thousands of families who lost everything that day, and with a literally sustainable response: a recycled-plastic home.
It occurred in the district of Tangui, municipality of Medio Atrato, in Choco, one of the regions hardest hit by the earthquake. There, one of those affected was Ines Moreno Mena and her family, made up of her son and three grandchildren. Their house was left in ruins, and they had to go live with a neighbor.
The Quibdo Diocese, the departmental capital, learned of the case. Priest William Quintero coordinated with a private company that offered to donate a house and the Botellas de Amor Foundation.
“Having housing is having everything; not having it is poverty. And they [the beneficiary company] told me: ‘Father, we are going to donate the value of a house,’” the religious man recalled in the Noticias Caracol news program. “I immediately contacted the Botellas de Amor Foundation, which is the one that makes these houses with processed recyclable plastic; we made contact and it was quick.”
The materials were transported along the Atrato River to the district of Tangui, and the work was carried out between August 18 and 20. Teams from the foundation and residents of the Tanguí district participated in assembling the structure, amid the difficult access conditions that characterize many communities in Medio Atrato.
They used strips and posts made from flexible plastic waste (bags, packaging, and similar materials) that the organization collects and transforms at its plants, as the outlet Choco7dias.com reported on the matter.
According to the foundation, these profiles make it possible to build earthquake-resistant homes that are long-lasting and have good thermal and acoustic properties. Since 2016, Botellas de Amor has been converting difficult-to-recycle plastic into “plastic wood” or RPL (Recycled Plastic Lumber), and reported that it already has more than 7,000 tons of material stored, an amount that, according to its calculations, would be equivalent to about 2,000 potential homes.
On August 21, eleven days after the earthquake, the family of Ines Moreno Mena received the house, the first one of this type to be built after the earthquake in Choco. It has an area of 38 square meters and consists of two bedrooms, a living-dining room, kitchen, guest bathroom and the possibility of future expansions.
Strategy based on the circular economy
John Berrio, international director of the foundation, said that thanks to all the donations coming in, they are already producing 22 homes that they will install in Choco over the next five weeks.
The Botellas de Amor Foundation is a nonprofit organization that, through a circular economy strategy, promotes responsible consumption and the proper disposal of flexible plastic waste.
It educates and motivates the community to place their flexible plastic waste inside bottles and deliver them to collection points. The collected waste is processed and transformed into recycled plastic strips that make it possible to carry out social projects.
Kelly Rodriguez, the organization’s sustainability director, explained that the process consists of shredding and agglomerating flexible plastic to produce profiles that are used as boards and posts. These elements make it possible to assemble houses relatively quickly and with a positive environmental impact, by removing from the environment waste that normally ends up in landfills or rivers.
In Tanguí, the new home of Ines Moreno Mena has become the first concrete example of this reconstruction with recycled material. Aerial and interior images show a solid structure, with walls and construction elements made almost entirely from recovered plastic.
The foundation has already built dozens of homes and hundreds of social projects (playgrounds and furniture) in different regions of Colombia and other countries in Latin America. Its model is based on the citizen collection of “bottles of love”: PET containers filled with clean and dry flexible plastic that are then transformed into construction raw material.
It develops environmental awareness campaigns in educational institutions within its area of operation to train generations that are more aware and committed to the planet. It motivates students, teachers and families to separate their flexible plastic waste, demonstrating that every action counts.
Recovered plastic not only reduces pollution, but also makes it possible to donate playgrounds, school furniture and classrooms, built with recycled plastic profiles, to communities that need them. In this way, it promotes altruism and environmental commitment by creating a virtuous circle in which recycling not only protects the planet, but also builds happiness.