THE USE OF ECO-BRICKS AS AN ALTERNATIVE BUILDING BLOCK FOR PHILIPPINE BUDGET HOUSES PDF

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THE USE OF ECO-BRICKS AS AN ALTERNATIVE BUILDING BLOCK FOR PHILIPPINE BUDGET HOUSES Rose Angelica F. Quiday [email protected] GED0101 – First Semester December 5, 2019 The Use of Eco-Bricks as an Alternative Building Block for Philippine Budget Houses GED0101 Title: The Use of Eco-Bricks as an Alter...

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THE USE OF ECO-BRICKS AS AN ALTERNATIVE BUILDING BLOCK FOR PHILIPPINE BUDGET HOUSES

Rose Angelica F. Quiday [email protected] GED0101 – First Semester December 5, 2019

The Use of Eco-Bricks as an Alternative Building Block for Philippine Budget Houses GED0101

Title:

The Use of Eco-Bricks as an Alternative Building Block for Philippine Budget Houses

Rose Angelica F. Quiday December 5, 2019

_____________________________________________________________________________

Topic: Eco-Bricks is the common name given to polyethylene terephthalate (PET) bottles filled with heavily compressed inorganic, dry, and non-biodegradable waste. With the growing problem of unaffordable housing in the Philippines along with the persistent global crisis that is plastic pollution, this paper introduces Eco-Bricks that are economical, eco-friendly, and accessible as a potential alternative construction material for Philippine budget houses. To do this, this paper will discuss the properties that constitutes to the feasibility of Eco-Bricks as a substitute or supplement for common construction blocks such as hollow blocks. Overall, the discussions within this study will benefit a lot of sectors of the society. Particularly, this paper would greatly benefit the government, urban planners, environmental advocates, and the less fortunate sectors of the Philippine society.

The Use of Eco-Bricks as an Alternative Building Block for Philippine Budget Houses GED0101

The Use of Eco-Bricks as an Alternative Building Block for Philippine Budget Houses GED0101 Purpose/Introduction: The mitigation of poverty here in the Philippines continues to be the main concern of the Philippine government. It is one of the (if not the greatest) major issues that the country has been facing over the years. Its inability to be repressed brought about a long procession of massive and pervasive problems such as low economic growth, a weak agricultural sector, increased population rates and a high volume of inequality (Asian Development Bank, 2009). Because of these issues, poverty gave birth to a lot of consequences that continually makes it difficult for a lot of Filipino citizens to live in such conditions—one of which is the persisting problem to afford housing. In the East Asia Pacific (EAP) report titled “Expanding Opportunities for the Urban Poor”, the Philippines has the third-largest slum population in the region, along with China and Indonesia. Everywhere across the Philippines—especially in its capital Metro Manila—there is an incontestable array of stilt houses and makeshift dwellings that can be seen in cemeteries, along railways, and under unnoticeable bridges (Ordinario, 2010). According to the latest report the World Bank issued, the Filipinos that live within here are among the country’s 17 million urban slum dwellers, and these citizens are blatantly exposed to dangers such as extreme weather conditions, natural disasters, lack of sanitation, infectious diseases, and many more. That is why, up to now, solving the predicament of providing housing continues to be a subject of many discussions among the government, experts, industry stakeholders, and the nongovernment organizations. So, as a huge portion of the country’s population remains to live in slum areas, the government remains to look for effective resolutions to combat the scarcity in housing. However, problems regarding time and money arise due to lack of research on sustainable housing plans—leading to those that are expensive, unsustainable, and therefore The Use of Eco-Bricks as an Alternative Building Block for Philippine Budget Houses GED0101

The Use of Eco-Bricks as an Alternative Building Block for Philippine Budget Houses GED0101 unattainable. With this, it is rightful to deeply explore and examine one of the sustainable practices that is tailored for low-cost housings, and one of the numerous waste reduction strategies that is gaining attention in the emergent time—the Eco-Bricks.

Attempts on Resolving the Housing Crisis in the Philippines Among the several housing projects dedicated to the informal settlers in the Philippines, probably one of the most notable was the program led by the Aquino administration. In 2011, two flagship projects were approved and launched: one of which was for the illegal settlers dwelling in the perilous areas of Metro Manila. This relocation project was administered in lieu of clearing waterways and esteros that the informal settlers are occupying to prepare for the rainy season. A P50 billion budget was fixed for this project with the goal to relocate and provide homes to around 104,000 illegal settling families, of which 60,000 were living in waterways or esteros. The program aimed to relocate 20,000 families yearly (Medina & Generalao, 2017). However, this project became time-consuming for the rate of population growth here in the Philippines. Thus, the problem in housing continues to persist (Remo, 2017).

The Plaguing Solid Waste Predicament With the continuous increase (in a faster pace more than ever) of global solid waste at present, urban expansion professionals alert everyone that the growth will hit the highest point this century. With this, the rates will not commence decreasing until everyone realizes the magnitude it brings, and until transformational modifications will be made regarding how we use and reuse The Use of Eco-Bricks as an Alternative Building Block for Philippine Budget Houses GED0101

The Use of Eco-Bricks as an Alternative Building Block for Philippine Budget Houses GED0101 materials (Muyen, Barna, and Hoque, 2016). Daniel Hoornweg and Perinaz Bhada-Tata, two of the Word Bank’s notable urban development professionals, reported in 2012 that the globally accumulated solid waste is approximately 1.3 billion tonnes annually. They predicted through statistics that this number would continue to rise in 2025 to around 2.2 billion tonnes per annum (Muyen et al., 2016). According to a report regarding plastic pollution by the Ocean Conservancy and McKinset Centre for Business and Environment, just in the Philippines, 2.7 million tonnes of plastic waste are generated annually and 20 percent (which is half a million tonnes) freely seeps into our oceans (Vila, 2018). One of the “sachet economies,” the Philippines and its citizens altogether consume more than 163 million sachet packets, 45 million labo bags, and 48 million sando bags in just a day (Alegado, 2019). These statistics alone puts the country at the third rank when it comes to cradling discarded plastic, along with China and Indonesia respectively (Vila, 2018). It also does not help that the Philippines has no concrete garbage collecting system, leaving its people with the predicament of where to store their waste. Hence, the urge to just leave them anywhere convenient. One good example is Manila’s slum areas, where garbage trucks are either inaccessible or unreliable. Hereafter, plastic waste such as sachets are hurled carelessly in creeks or thrown on the streets, ending up to drainage and waterway blockages.

Attempts on Mitigating the Plastic Problem As a response to the lack of national policies on the production of plastics and to the enduring problem of plastic pollution, many local government units have delivered local decrees to regulate the consumption of plastic that includes items such as packaging materials and The Use of Eco-Bricks as an Alternative Building Block for Philippine Budget Houses GED0101

The Use of Eco-Bricks as an Alternative Building Block for Philippine Budget Houses GED0101 shopping bags (South China Morning Post, 2019). Furthermore, numerous lawmakers who cares for the environment have filed ordinances that attempts to authorize a nationwide ban of singleuse plastic such as (but not limited to): non-biodegradable straws and stirrers, plastic bags, plastic bottles, etc. With the struggle against plastic residuals, locals are even starting to establish changes in their lifestyles by living by Zero waste programs. However, despite these efforts, again, due to the absence of a national policy and poor enforcements of laws, people cannot thoroughly eliminate plastics from their lives (Alegado, 2019). With this predicament, local or national governments, need to think of effective ways to address this alarming crisis such as strategies to reuse them.

Plan of Action: The Eco-Brick Movement—A New Opportunity Recently, there has been a new opportunity that was seen as a solution to combat not just the housing problems here in the Philippines, but also, the growing problem regarding plastic pollution—the Eco Bricks. Eco-bricks are the name for polyethylene terephthalate (PET) bottles filled with heavily compressed inorganic, dry, and non-biodegradable waste. Recognized as the most commonly used plastic in the whole world, PET is a naturally transparent and semicrystalline plastic widely used as a fiber for clothing, as an effective moisture barrier with wide applicability in bottling and packaging, and as an engineering plastic when it is combined with other materials like glass fiber to significantly increase the material’s strength (Creative Mechanisms Staff, 2016). Moreover, it is globally known as a safe, non-toxic, strong, lightweight, flexible material that is fully recyclable. In fact, it’s is the most widely recycled plastic in the world. The Use of Eco-Bricks as an Alternative Building Block for Philippine Budget Houses GED0101

The Use of Eco-Bricks as an Alternative Building Block for Philippine Budget Houses GED0101 The technology was invented by Andreas Froese, a German national who involved the use of single-use PET bottles, debris and earth as raw material for construction. The PET bottles were filled with soil, sand, mud, or dirt and were used as brick to build houses. The said technology was rapidly assumed by different third-world countries such as South Africa, Nigeria, Philippines, Norway, and India. This campaign paved way for more than 50 construction programs around the world. Froese’s plastic bottles, when filled with soil or sand, was proven to effectively work as building blocks and can even be utilized in walls or pillars, without the help of any conventional bricks (Muyen et al., 2016). Employing Froese’s system, ‘Development Association for Renewable Energies,’ a Nigerian NGO, fruitfully constructed a two-bedroom house completely using plastic bottles which is said to be “bullet and fireproof, earthquake resilient, and upholds a comfortable internal temperature of 64° F year round” (Raut, Patel, Jadhwar, Khan, and Dhengare, 2015). With this, because of the ability of PET bottles to degrade slowly and be recycled time after time, it is referred as a sustainable construction material. In addition to this, it has become a low-cost construction material for social projects in places where litter and plastic pollution has remained a problem (Antico, Araya-Letelier, Gonzalez, Wiener, 2017). Thus, when used as a construction material for building houses for the less fortunate in the Philippines, would possibly provide a solution not just for the problem in lack of affordable housing, but also, the growing plastic pollution in the country. At present, the Eco-brick movement continuously gains more and more attention. This movement is led by several green advocates believing it could help the country reduce plastic

The Use of Eco-Bricks as an Alternative Building Block for Philippine Budget Houses GED0101

The Use of Eco-Bricks as an Alternative Building Block for Philippine Budget Houses GED0101 pollution. Motivational techniques such as graded schoolwork or trading a certain number of Eco bottles for metal straws are instigated to obtain people’s attention, as well as their participation.

Conclusion: The Philippines, being a third-world country, and its government has continuously been concerned with the problem of poverty mitigation. Its inability to be held back brought about a long procession of massive and pervasive problems that continually makes it difficult for a lot of Filipino citizens to live in comfortable conditions—one of which is the persisting problem to afford housing. As a huge portion of the country’s population remains to live in slum areas, the government remains to look for effective resolutions to combat the scarcity in housing. Attempts were made in the form of housing programs, but continues to fail due to problems such as time and money. Problems arise due to lack of research on sustainable housing plans—leading to those that are expensive, unsustainable, and therefore unattainable. Along with this problem and the predicament of the persistent global crisis that is plastic pollution, this paper introduced Eco-Bricks as a potential alternative construction material for Philippine budget houses. With this paper, it was proved that Eco-Bricks can, in fact, be sustainable and effective alternatives for conventional construction blocks. With further research, probably in the quantitative angle of durability and usability, Eco-Bricks can not just only be used in building low-cost houses, but also in building huge infrastructures such as roads, bridges, industrialized buildings, and the likes. With this, there is hope that the poverty predicament of our country, and the environmental crisis that our world is emergently facing can be mitigated—one step at a time. The Use of Eco-Bricks as an Alternative Building Block for Philippine Budget Houses GED0101

The Use of Eco-Bricks as an Alternative Building Block for Philippine Budget Houses GED0101 NO. OF WORDS: 1,839

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