Kaduna: A Nigerian engineer has constructed a house using 14,800 sand-filled plastic bottles as bricks in Kaduna, describing it as the first structure of its kind in sub-Saharan Africa.
Yahaya Ahmed, director of the Developmental Association of Renewable Energies in Nigeria (DARE), said the project aims to encourage recycling, create jobs and build a safer environment across Nigeria.
Workers filled each plastic bottle with sand and connected them at the neck using an intricate network of strings. The completed house includes three rooms, a toilet and a kitchen, and sits along the Kaduna-Zaria road in the Unguwar-Yalwa area.
Ahmed said the structure is 20 times stronger than a conventional brick wall and designed to last over 300 years if built carefully. He described it as fireproof, bulletproof and earthquake-resistant, with the capacity to adapt to climate changes, desertification and deforestation.
“It is the cheapest house to build in this generation with waste plastic bottles on the streets polluting our environment and causing more problems like flood and other disasters in the communities,” Ahmed told journalists at the site.
He explained that bottle houses work best in a circular shape, which adds structural strength while giving the building a distinct appearance. Ahmed added that anyone with basic masonry skills is equipped to work on these homes.
DARE has already trained youth and adults across Nigeria and parts of Africa in plastic bottle construction techniques. Ahmed called for training even more Nigerians to scale the initiative nationally.
Piman Hoffman, Assistant Director of African Climate Reporters, urged the Nigerian government to support renewable energy companies through structured waste management plans. He noted that billions of plastic water and beverage bottles are discarded globally each year, with most ending up in landfills, oceans or open heaps in lower-income countries.
Hoffman warned that plastics pose a growing threat to humans, animals and aquatic life. He said aquatic animals face increasing danger from plastic bottles dumped into rivers and streams, and called for collective action to address plastic pollution before its consequences grow further.
Ahmed’s project presents a model that addresses housing affordability, environmental pollution and skills development in one structure.
