Plastic Bottles Turn to Roofing Materials in Disaster Zones

A research team at the New York Institute of Technology has come up with an innovative way to cut recovery costs from natural disasters. It’s cool, it’s recyclable and best of all, it’s almost free.

Jason Van Nest, associate professor in the School of Architecture and Design at NYIT, says that the team has developed a way to use plastic water and soda bottles as roofing materials for housing in disaster zones. The team has registered the project with Kickstarter and is seeking backers to create a full-size prototype of the roof.

The SodaBIB project (short for Soda bottle interface bracket) takes advantage of the very thing that makes plastic bottles such a problem in landfills: their durability. Polyethylene terephthalate, or PET for short, is the substance used in most commercial water and soda bottles that gives them their longevity and impervious structure. The plastic is great for resisting leaks, and according to Van Nest, perfect for constructing a simple emergency roof that can be erected on the spot with virtually no tools or equipment.

According to Van Nest, the team had to go through several redesigns before they found the results they were looking for. Since the goal was to create a roof that could both withstand the elements and be built manually by homeowners and emergency aid workers, they found that slicing the bottles lengthwise into concave units (which required the use of knives and produced sharp edges) wasn’t an option.

“That was our biggest tripping point,” says Van Nest. “In disaster areas or relief situations there might be children handling these bottles,” which could lead to increased risk of injury.

But the team found that compressing the bottles by hand, or with a swift stomp or two with the foot, produced just the results they were looking for: tile-like units that could then be placed in an alternating pattern much like terra cotta, or Spanish-style roofing tiles that are used on houses in warm temperate zones.

To interconnect the bottles, the team designed a plastic fastener made of holes the size of water bottle caps. The concave bottles would then be screwed into the fastener in an overlapping design and connected to the building. The team found that when the makeshift roof was sloped, water would cascade off of the tiles instead of seeping between the bottles and leaking into the domicile.

Then came the question of how to ensure that the fastener and purlins needed to construct the roof were shipped with the water. The team realized that the answer lay in the solid-looking pallets that drinking water bottles are shipped in – the same kind that places like Costco, Sam’s Club and other warehouse stores move about when their forklifts are transporting water and soda products onto the floor. By redesigning the pallet, the instructors and students were able to incorporate the plastic supports into a self-contained unit.

“And what we are most excited about with this project is … that the pallet ends up getting disassembled practically without any tools. Individuals can break (it) into building material and then merely crush the bottles,” before attaching them to the fastener. Van Nest points out that since there are no nails or screws used in this construction phase, a person can literally put the roof together with nothing more than a hammer. Plus, the bottles that would normally end up in a landfill or by the side of the road are reused after the water has been consumed.

“This is just a win, win, win,” says Van Nest, who points out that the projects like this benefit students as well, as they learn and develop new ways to promote green technology. “(Students) can work on architecturally significant problems, we can help people in disaster areas and we can encourage a culture of reuse,” he says.

Asked whether a SodaBIB roof would work in cold climates, he acknowledged that its real benefits would be found in more southern regions.

“One really great place to use this is in the tropics where the heat builds pressure against the roof… and this roof (can vent) the heat out.” The roof can also be painted with an opaque covering to extend the life of the PET, which breaks down faster when exposed to direct sunlight.

The team is now at the critical stage of raising money to build the full-size prototype, which is where the Kickstarter campaign comes in. According to the team’s project overview, a large part of the $32,500 estimated budget reflects the costs of manpower, since most of the construction will be done by NYIT students on their own time. The team plans to build a roof the size of a garden shed, from start to finish, including the five pallets necessary to build a roof of this size.  The students will also be filming the process so they can show prospective investors the end product when they market it to beverage manufacturers.

SodaBIB’s Kickstarter campaign provides a comprehensive description of the project, a breakdown of its financial projections and a video of some of the early stages of research. Unlike with some crowdfunding projects, all of the team’s financial projections are provided upfront.

Van Nest says that for him, the real plus of this project is what it gives to the individual or family that has just gone through a natural disaster, such as the 2010 Haiti earthquake.

Community members often feel a sense of helplessness after experiencing a disaster, says Van Nest.  “So, one of the ancillary benefits is empowerment,” The plastic water and soda bottles you were given for replenishment can now be turned into your essential building supplies: a perfect cycle of reuse.

“There is the need for water, there’s the need for shelter and there is the need for safety – the need for life,” says Van Nest. And having the tools to be able to make a difference in the midst of tragedy is just as important.