Jul 13, 2011
Plastic bottle home…
..this puts a whole new meaning in the word green. The following article was written by Maureen Dietrich for the Mazatlan Messenger on June 11, 2011.
What makes this special is that it happened and is happening on the Isla, Stone Island, where we winter.
House Constructed of Plastic Bottles Gets Thumbs Up
For four months Flor de Liz Mayo López, a member of the Ejiditarios of Stone Island, collected plastic bottles from garbage bins, the beach and neighbours with a particular idea in mind. She was going to build a house with them.
Yesterday, she and her two sons happily showed off their new lime green sand-filled plastic bottle home to members of the State Secretary of Social Development (Sedesol) and municipal director of social services, Héctor Peña Tamayo.
The construction, said Peña Tamayo, of the home of Señora Mayo López and two of her neighbours each with an area of 4×4 square meters, by 2.7 meters high, required 6,000 free plastic bottles and approximately 40,000 pesos in additional building supplies.
Carlos Castañeda Valenzuela of Sedesol applauded the initiative, the first of its kind in the State of Sinaloa, and promised assistance for another 12 families on the island who are collecting bottles for their own unique home.
The project, Peña Tomayo told media, was begun in an effort to eliminate unstable homes made of laminate which dot the island.
Said an enthusiastic Castañeda Valenzula, the building materials not only help the environment but as well provide a comfortable home and a buffer against climate change. Beginning tomorrow he promised to apply for a budget to build more of the plastic bottle homes in Mazatlán and other communities.
Lime green and environmentally friendly, Flor de Liz's plastic bottle home.
What is really and truly amazing is that Mary Kay Ray who lives on the Isla posted on her June 9th blog about possibly building a community centre on the Isla out of plastic & glass bottles. This was 2 days before the article came out on the plastic bottle house on the Isla. A reader sent her the following link on how schools were being built in Guatamala. http://www.care2.com/causes/building-schools-with-recycled-plastic-bottles.html
I don’t believe that Mary evens knows about these homes. She in currently on a road trip but you can be sure I will be getting in touch with her ASAP.
I can hardly wait to get there and become involved. What a great project.
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Such a great concept for recycling, nice to see that the government supports it.
This is just wonderful. So how much in American dollars is 40,000 pesos?
A quick rule of thumb is to divide pesos by 10 to get USA dollars but the rate has changed so now 40,000 pesos is $3414.03 USD.
I posted a link to this post on my Facebook page, so you’ll probably get a few new readers. It frustrates me that so many of my friends and relatives still refuse to recycle this stuff, even though it has become very easy to do.
Great idea and recycling plastic. someone also was collecting glass wine bottles for a house or wall last year, also a great recycling idea, like maybe we can help contribute a few empties!!
Susie….it was Mary the massage lady collecting for a wall but also I think there was a Mexican family collecting for a wall. I think this is a project that all of us at Tres Amigos can easily become involved in.
Marty…thanks for doing your part and helping spread the news.
George, I really hope that this is just a beginning!!
What a wonderful article Contessa – bringing awareness to as many people as one can – is such a gift.
It is a amazing what third world countries, can do with the trash from the “super power” countries industries.
(tsk-tsk)
[…] Last Tuesday after the vet I went over to RV2, ( Tres Amigos RV Park is divided into 2 parks, as it expanded ) for happy hour while Colin stayed with Carmeh and played his guitar. This was not a regular happy hour but rather a fund raiser organized by RV2. We RVer’s here at Tres Amigos become involved in the local community during our stay here. One thing we all do is bring down lots of used clothing, shoes, blankets, towels, anything we can fit into our rigs. Mary, our local massage person, originally from Colorado but now a fulltime Isla resident has come to know who needs the most help and has created a distribution system. As anywhere else in the world there are poor areas and really poor areas in a community. You may recall my post about how some of these people are building homes out of plastic pop bottles … […]
[…] to building homes out of plastic bottles in July of 2011. Rather than repeat myself please click here to read what I had discovered. Then in January this year yet another article was written about these […]