April 16, 2018, Puerto Iguazu, Argentina
text by Lea
Today I met the wonderful Alfredo Alberto Santa Cruz on my trip through Latin America. Alfredo Alberto and his team from La Casa Ecologica de Botellas use plastics and other trash to construct houses, furniture, accessories as well as fabulous toys for people in need in Argentina and Paraguay. These people would not be able to afford any of these things if they weren’t made from trash which is free. Carlos, a dedicated member of Alfredo’s team gave me a tour through his “showroom” and I was truly surprised by their genius ideas and by the astonishing quality of their products.
Now let me show you a few examples:
A fully furnished bedroom. The walls, the ceilings, the bed, the bedside table and even the lamps are made from old plastic bottles, beverage cans and Tetra Pak.
Comfortable chairs and a toy car.
Wall decorations made from bottles, curtains made from plastic bottle caps, and super comfortable garden chairs made from old tyres.
Building blocks tied together.
The basic building blocks of most of their furniture as well as of their walls are made from two parts that are stacked together: a whole bottle plus another bottle’s bottom part. To provide the walls with more stability and to prevent walls from being transparent, they add a layer of used Tetra Pak. Depending on the situation they even add a third layer which consists of a metal grid and concrete.
To tie the building blocks together, they use strings made from plastic bottles. To fabricate these strings, Alfredo’s team has invited an own simple slicing tool. With this tool they can easily slice strings of different widths. But of course they have also found further uses for these strings. As an example, I show here the broom which is made from intertwined strings. They also use the strings to braid handbags, shopping bags, baskets, and decoration items such as the wall flowers further above.
La Casa Ecologica de Botellas’s team frequently invites poor people to their showroom and provides workshops for these people to learn how to build their very own house and furniture. They are based in Puerto Iguazu in Argentina and welcome visitors from all over the world. Find more information on their website.
https://sites.google.com/site/lacasadebotellas2/ecologichouseofplasticbottles
https://sites.google.com/site/lacasadebotellas2/
Or checkout their Youtube videos to learn how the slicer works, or to see other products such as a belt made from beverage cans.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c5s7_IOoeI4
For further information you can also contact lea.allemann@trashhero.org
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