Houses Made from Plastic Waste Are Improving Quality of Life in Mexico

Two birds with one stone: reducing waste piles in Mexico and simultaneously creating cost-effective living spaces. These are the houses that plastic waste built!

Autor*in Anna Rees, 02.24.16

Two birds with one stone: reducing waste piles in Mexico and simultaneously creating cost-effective living spaces. These are the houses that plastic waste built!

A 40 sqm house for around 250 EUR? Possible? Possible! The startup EcoDomum in Mexico is already working on this, building houses out of plastic waste. A public funding program is also making it possible to provide the houses for an affordable amount.

The concept not only tackles the world’s rampant plastic waste, it also helps low-income earners and, in Mexico, this problem is just as big as the rubbish problem. Neza-Chalco-Itza (Nezahualcóyotl), a suburb of Mexico City, ranks among the five biggest slums in the world. Almost four million people live here under grim conditions. Plastic houses could provide an economically-affordable living space option to residents.

Construction of a family house using this system takes around one week and requires about 80 plastic panels. To date, 500 houses have been built with more to come. Currently, EcoDomum presses 120 plastic panels from 5.5 tonnes of plastic waste via heating and pressing, which is carried out in a local factory. Here comes another plus side: EcoDomum pays the garbage collectors reasonable wages, thereby helping to bring people out of poverty.

If your Spanish is up to scratch, check out the video below of EcoDomum’s two founders introducing their initiative or head to their website to find out more. Todo bien? Está bien!

Translated from this article by Silvana that was originally published on our German-language platform.

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