Recycled Plastic As Building Materials

Plastic waste is a big problem for people in many countries. Plastic does not degrade easily. Landfills are constantly filled with many kinds of plastic waste. The problem is so big that many countries have even banned plastic shopping and garbage bags.

Burying plastic in soil like other kinds of conventional garbage is not advisable. Since plastic does not decay, it mixes with soil which then becomes entangled or mixed in with plant. As a result, animals and humans can accidentally eat plastic without knowing it.

The same is true for plastic waste which ends up in rivers and oceans. Our rivers and oceans are fast becoming filled with many kinds of plastic waste that in the end are consumed by the marine life we eat. As a result, humans can accidentally eat plastic when they eat marine life.

People have tried burning plastic waste in an effort to get rid of them. While this is an effective and efficient idea, it is very dangerous for human health. Fumes from burning plastic is very toxic when inhaled. Long enough exposure can prove to be very fatal.

Besides the fumes from the burning plastic, the actual burning plastic itself is very flammable and long lasting. Plastics are also a serious fire hazard if not properly insulated from heat or flames. They are ranked together with wood in terms of flammability.

The reason why many people say that: ‘plastic has conquered the world’ or that we are now ‘living in the age of plastic’ is because plastic is all around us. Plastic has many good characteristics over other materials.

Plastic Is Very Strong:

The proof of this is that plastic chairs have mostly replaced wooden chairs in many parts of the world. They are very light yet they can support a very heavy weight without breaking or bending.

Plastic Is Waterproof:

Unlike steel that rusts or wood that gets rotten, plastic is impervious to water and other liquids. In fact, many of the bottles, jar, and containers of water and other liquids we have today are now mostly made out of plastic.

Plastic Is Very Flexible But Strong:

Plastic is the main material used to create shopping/grocery bags, water bags, garbage bags and so on. This is because they are very flexible but are very strong. They don’t break easily even when exposed to high pressure.

Plastic Is Very Malleable When Exposed To Heat

Although plastic is very strong, it is very malleable when exposed to heat. It is easy to turn a piece of plastic material into another piece of plastic material. You could for example melt a plastic milk bottle cap and turn it into a flat piece of plastic or any other shape.

Plastics are not very resistant to heat. They in fact tend to melt easily even when exposed to a small degree of heat. But this property which is a disadvantage in some instances can be an advantage in other instances.

You don’t need expensive or sophisticated tools to melt plastic and turn it to something else. Here is a video which shows plastic bottle caps being melted using only a home cooking equipment.

YouTube Video: Beginners’ Guide to Melting HDPE - How to Make a Recycled Plastic Pen

But you don’t even need cooking equipment, as long as you can provide heat that is hot enough to melt plastic, you’re already in business. Again, I would to reiterate that most plastic is very sensitive to heat and would melt easily.

Perhaps the best way to explain this is through a video I saw in YouTube. The video is about an African entrepreneur who uses plastic waste of all kind including plastic grocery bags and bottles to make construction materials:

YouTube Video: Kenyan who uses plastic bags to make building materials

This entrepreneur creates plastic products that can be used as roofing, flooring as well as support for houses. He is especially proud of his plastic posts which he says are better than wood.

According to him, wood burns easily while his plastic products which are primarily mixed with sand do not. He also tells that his plastic products are long lasting. He guarantees that his products can last approximately 40 years.

The African man I previously mentioned in the previous paragraph almost had everything figured out, but there is another company located in South America which I think have a bigger impact than him if they succeed with making their product popular:

YouTube Video: How Recycled Plastic Bottles Are Building Homes

If you watch the video, you would know that this Colombian company is not only trying to reduce the huge plastic waste problem in their country, but is also trying to make recycled plastic as a main building block replacing wood.

I’m not an expert in construction so I can’t vouch how strong are houses made out of this company’s recycled plastic. According to their video, they have already built more than 20 houses.

I don’t know if this number is a proof that their recycled plastic building material product can indeed replace wood and concrete when it comes to building houses, but it is proof enough that complete houses can be made from recycled plastic.

Just because plastic is turned into very basic construction materials, they do not have to be ugly and boring. Here is a video from YouTube that proves that recycled plastic waste, in this case milk jugs, can be both beautiful, practical and strong:

YouTube Video: How To Recycle Plastic Bottles Into A Park Bench | Made By Destruction

As this video proves, spent plastic milk jugs can have a second life as beautiful and ornate plastic park benches. These plastic park benches are more practical compared to steel and wooden park benches which rust and rot.

One nagging question that comes to my mind is this: “Can recycled plastic be truly used as a replacement for steel, concrete and wood in construction?” Since I am not a materials engineer, I would leave it to an expert to answer the question:

Science Article: Why plastic waste is an ideal building material

If you read the article, a real life materials engineer explains that recycled plastics are ideal building and construction materials once properly prepared with the right materials. This is just one article, there are other articles online which say a similar thing about recycled plastic.

If we look back at the video I linked about an African entrepreneur who creates building materials from recycled plastic, you would easily notice that the tools and equipment his workers use in his factory are very basic.

The process of recycling plastic is not complicated. Companies who recycle plastic collect waste plastic from garbage collectors. These garbage collectors could be garbage collection companies or anyone who makes a living collecting plastic waste.

After the plastic waste has been delivered to the premises of the plastic recycling company, the plastics are removed of their impurities like dirt, paper labels, or any excess liquid that they contain.

The cleaned waste plastic is then chopped into very small pieces called ‘chips’ and are put into a melting equipment where they are melted. When the plastic chip has been melted, it is sent to the molding equipment where it takes its new shape.

After the melted plastic has formed its new shape, the workers then put them into a holding place where the newly molded plastic hardens into its new form. At times, the newly molded plastic is dipped into water to hasten its hardening process.

As you can see, the process is not complicated and you can even do this in your home as proven by one of the YouTube videos I linked in this article. Perhaps the most important thing that you would need is a mold for molding, the rest of the process can be done with tools and equipment which can be found at home.

Before I end this article, please allow me to discuss about safety. The African video I linked showed the use of even plastic grocery bags to make their construction materials made out of recycled plastic.

I don’t know about the safety regulation in Africa and more specifically Kenya where the African business is based, but I do know that plastic grocery bags can be very toxic if they are burned or even just melted.

Many people who know about plastic recycling recommend that you only use plastics that are categorized as HDPE or High Density Polyethylene. As compared to ordinary plastic, they are not as dangerous when recycled.

To make your plastic recycling efforts even more safe, check the labels of the plastic products you use. On plastic products that are commonly used as disposable container products, there is usually a label which denotes how safe it is to recycle them.

It is beyond the scope of this article to discuss the labelling convention of plastic products because each country has their own. So do your own research regarding your country’s rules regarding the legality and safety of recycling a plastic product.

Plastic as a building material is gaining popularity in many countries especially in developing countries where the cost of building materials is expensive. Many recycling companies all over the world in such places as Africa and South America has proven that this idea is valid.

Plastic has many characteristics which makes it an ideal replacement for steel, concrete and wood in construction. There are even many articles online even coming from experts themselves which attest to this.

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