When bringing in much needed supplies for disaster relief, emergency response teams can unintentionally contribute to the production of trash. A project at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute seeks to advance waste reduction by reusing the plastic from empty water bottles to fabricate shelters, according to a description in Science Daily. The prototype is the brainchild of the school’s engineering and architecture departments and involves teams in Cairo and New York City working on a 15 square meter design for people displaced by disaster situations.
According to the article, the concept centers on the use of the bottle as economical and easily assembled building blocks. “Each modular unit slide-locks with other units to form strong wall and building structures that can be filled with dirt, sand, or other materials to form a sturdy structure without the use of mortar,” reports Science Daily.
Although the idea is still in the prototype phase, fashioning building materials out of waste products already brought to disaster sites such as water bottles holds larger ramifications for the future, as waste reduction, carbon footprints and the challenge of sourcing building materials in hard hit regions all continue to impact disaster management.
Source:
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/05/180507111903.htm
