Plastic Bottles + architecture 1

[objectivesci]

Hey guys I was wondering if any of you are interested in something new to do with plastic bottles. I have recently found a company called MiniWIZ that is building an expo Center out of plastic bottles! They have been able to mold plastic bottles that are able to inter lock to form a sort of plastic brick wall! I have seen pictures of this on Treehugger.com. I think this will take plastic bottles to a whole new level. Tell me what you guys think about this.

And this is a recent picture of it now.

 

[patprimmer]

I think it's a lot of effort to make a statement that does not really reflect reality in all but extreme circumstances.

Real world, interlocking bottles will be hard to mould, waste material, have poor packing density when used for the primary purpose, will cost a bomb to collect and use, will need extreme UV protection that will cost a bomb and have a negative impact on some potential primary uses and most wont actualy end up in a building so the extra cost, effort and material is then totally wasted.

Regards
Pat
See FAQ731-376 for tips on use of eng-tips by professional engineers &

http://eng-tips.com/market.cfm

for site rules

 

[jchoi]

That's an awesome idea, using interlocking plastic should make construction cheaper because it is light weight and easy to build.
Do the plastic bottles need additional filling to make it structurally sound?
And with what Patprimmer talked about... I wonder how this particular brick addresses those problems.

 

[objectivesci]

Yes, to make interlocking bottles is pretty expensive but it seems like a small price to pay to be able to start something like this.

The bottles do not need any filling to stay sturdy. The air in the bottles helps insulate the building and every bottle will be fitted with led lights.

I think MiniWiz has solved the problems that you have talked about. So, I think this building will determine if these plastic bottles are suitable for use in future construction. Maybe one day these will susbstite bricks.

 

[patprimmer]

It might seem like a small price, but wait and see what happens when you ask others to pay it.

Also, waste is not environmentally friendly, even if wrapped in green paper. This scheme seems to have a potential for very high waste to me.

Regards
Pat
See FAQ731-376 for tips on use of eng-tips by professional engineers &

http://eng-tips.com/market.cfm

for site rules

 

[MacGyverS2000]

What about the miles and miles of wiring necessary to light those red lights? Copper ain't cheap, and it certainly isn't green to process it...

Dan - Owner

http://www.Hi-TecDesigns.com

 

[jchoi]

LED bulbs is an option right?
I think the bottles can be filled with whatever you want. Like sand or cement, lighting, air, water...
And with each material the application can be different and diverse.

How expensive is Polli-brick... is it cheaper or more expensive than other common materials? ... like clay bricks, glass, cement... so on...

Patprimmer, What kind of waste do you think polli-brick has?

I'm kind of curious how Miniwiz solves the UV problem

 

[MacGyverS2000]

LED bulbs is an option right?

Anything is an option... but you still need to power the LEDs, which means miles and miles of copper wiring. Not cheap, and not eco-friendly.

Dan - Owner

http://www.Hi-TecDesigns.com

 

[patprimmer]

jchoi

patprimmer (Publican)
7 Dec 09 6:13
I think it's a lot of effort to make a statement that does not really reflect reality in all but extreme circumstances.

Real world, interlocking bottles will be hard to mould, waste material, have poor packing density when used for the primary purpose, will cost a bomb to collect and use, will need extreme UV protection that will cost a bomb and have a negative impact on some potential primary uses and most wont actualy end up in a building so the extra cost, effort and material is then totally wasted.

Regards
Pat

A SWAG at bottle wt vs normal bottle, say 100% heavier.

A SWAG at extra cost of UV package, say 10% increase and possible loss of food contact suitability or taste tainting.

A SWAG at packing density, say 30% less product per pallet or truckload or whatever, equals increased delivery costs and warehousing costs and shelf space at supermarket.

A SWAG at increased cycle time to get good definition of interlock, say 50% increase.

A SWAG at increased tooling costs to make a blow moulding mould that has high definition undercuts, say 50%.

A SWAG at yeild of packaging that gets recycled into buildings, say 1%.

Cost of collection from consumer waste to deliver to building site vs a delivery of bricks direct from the builders supply warehouse, say 10,000%


Regards
Pat
See FAQ731-376 for tips on use of eng-tips by professional engineers &

http://eng-tips.com/market.cfm

for site rules

 

[jchoi]

Patprimmer, I agree with you on all the points except for the last one. You forgot to put in the transportation of clay or whatever the bricks are made of to the manufacturer of the bricks then it goes to the warehouse and so on... so the percentage should be less.

What should we do with the unused PET bottles then? I guess this polli-brick isn't doable since there is so much waste involved.
If we can find a place to store the bottles, maybe we should just burn it like most asian countries do. Due to the high population density and limited amount of space in urban areas, the most logical solution is to burn all the PET. Then less carbon would be released into the environment compared to the process of recycling it into a new product.

 

[patprimmer]

Bricks often go direct from point of manufacturer to building site, especially for big jobs.

They also go from manufacturer to builders supply house then to building site, but mostly only for small jobs.

The plastic bottles have to be collected from a very wide spread distribution to various collection points, they then need to be identified in the waste stream and separated. They then need to be cleaned and inspected for damage.

They then need to be further centralised or accumulated and stored until there are enough available for the building project.

I don't really know the %age SWAG is Scientific Wild Ass Guess ;-)

They also present a considerable fire hazard.

They are also very light and need to be restrained so they do not blow away in the wind, even when interlocked.

Regards
Pat
See FAQ731-376 for tips on use of eng-tips by professional engineers &

http://eng-tips.com/market.cfm

for site rules

 

[btrueblood]

"What should we do with the unused PET bottles then?"

Aren't a fair amount of them recycled? There is a recycling station near where I work, and they ship a fairly large amount of crushed and baled bottles off to somewhere...though shipping them to Asia for fuel would not be that ridiculous I guess, if that's where the $$$ are. sigh.

 

[patprimmer]

btrue, crushed then transported is a key phrase. At least in Aus, PET beverage bottles have a very high recycle rate as PET compounds and even new beverage bottles.

Regards
Pat
See FAQ731-376 for tips on use of eng-tips by professional engineers &

http://eng-tips.com/market.cfm

for site rules

 

[Nileo2005]

The entire recycling process would be hell on these things. Even if you could find the right mechanical separation to pull these out of the mass flow of recyclables, how do you clean them when sorted? You can't just grind them up and wash them then, kinda defeats the purpose. And what about transport or consumer damaged containers? How could you remove dented or creased or cracked bottles automatically? Full recycle and reuse is the way to go. Now that even food containers can be made with 100% post consumer product, why not reuse the crap out of the plastic?

 

[Warthog56]

I have seen a fair bit out there about the Polli-Brick. But, none of the answers to the questions on this discussion string can be found in one place! Somebody posted a Youtube video and they say in the video that Polli-Brick costs a lot less than stone or glass. Other forums say that Polli-Brick has an R value of 7; Others, more. (I guess it matters whether you use air as the insulator). They say that it has been tested against hurricane force winds and earthquakes. That makes sense because they built a building out of it in Taiwan. But, where are the test results to be found and reviewed? Other news reports say that it is UV treated. The BBC did a good story about it and you can see a video of what the inside and outside of the building looks like. All in all, interesting buzz -- but not enough specs for peer judgement or any kind of POV on spec-ability. Anybody out there working with this material?

 

[patprimmer]

Yes

I work with recycled PET carbonated beverage bottles at times. We buy bottles that have been converted into chip then we further process into moulding compounds for non food contact applications like roadside marker posts.

Regards
Pat
See FAQ731-376 for tips on use of eng-tips by professional engineers &

http://eng-tips.com/market.cfm

for site rules