A Way Of Recycling Plastic That Can Be Useful In Construction

ABSTRACT

Disposal of non-bio-degradable substance has become an issue of major concern now days. Mounds of plastic garbage have been created on earth surface. Laterite quarry waste is abundantly available and disposal of waste plastics (PETE, PP, etc.) is the biggest challenge. Only one in six plastic bottles are properly recycled .On other hand high cost of primary requirement for constructing the houses in places on where people are under poverty line is forming one of most significant problems of people.

A suitable approach for this situation is using some part of urban rubbish or waste as required materials for building construction. Plastic bottle is considered as urban junk .but with sustainability characteristic it can be used as construction material instead of some conventional material such as brick in building construction.

This study investigates the practice of the use of Recycled Plastic Bottles (RPB) for a sustainable community-based housing project in Nigeria precisely in Ogun State. The study adopts the Diffusion of Innovation Theory (DOI), and Behaviour Change Theory (BCT) as the theoretical guide. Fieldwork was conducted in semi-urban and urban communities of Ogun State, Nigeria where a majority of individuals experience the challenge of affordable housing and environmental pollution concurrently. A total of 385 respondents were used as a sample for the study. This was determined through a sample size calculator developed by Raosoft Incorporation. Both qualitative (in-depth interviews) and quantitative (questionnaire) data were used to ascertain the level of knowledge and practice of RPB built homes, its challenges, prospects and the way forward in building sustainable homes and the environment in Nigeria and beyond. The findings of the study were discussed within the existing literature and recommendations were provided for policy action.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

COVER PAGE

TITLE PAGE

APPROVAL PAGE

DEDICATION

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

ABSTRACT

CHAPTER ONE

• INTRODUCTION
• BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY
• PROBLEM STATEMENT
• AIM AND OBJECTIVE OF THE PROJECT
• SIGNIFICANCE OF THE PROJECT
• LIMITATION OF THE PROJECT
• METHODOLOGY
• PROJECT ORGANIZATION

CHAPTER TWO

LITERATURE REVIEW

• OVERVIEW OF THE STUDY
• DIFFUSION OF INNOVATION THEORY
• BEHAVIOURAL CHANGE THEORY (BCT)
• REVIEW OF RELATED STUDIES
• PROBLEMS IN RECYCLING OF PLASTICS
• ADVANTAGES OF USING PLASTICS IN CONCRETE
• BASIC CONSTRUCTION MATERIALS AND PROPERTIES

CHAPTER THREE

METHODOLOGY

• RESEARCH DESIGN
• STUDY AREA
• THE POPULATION OF THE STUDY
• SAMPLING SIZE AND TECHNIQUES
• METHOD OF DATA COLLECTION
• METHOD OF DATA ANALYSIS
• ETHICAL CONSIDERATION

CHAPTER FOUR

4.0      RESULTS

• THEORETICAL DISCUSSION OF FINDINGS

CHAPTER FIVE

• CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION

CHAPTER ONE

1.0                                                        INTRODUCTION

1.1                                           BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY

Nowadays, human apply all of its potentiality to consume more. The result of this high consumption is nothing unless reducing the initial resources and increasing the landfill. In recent times, human from the one hand is always seeking broader sources with lower price and from the other hand is following the way to get the rid of the wastes. The waste today can be produced wherever humans footprints be existed, and remind him that they have not chosen the appropriate method for exploitation of the nature At the present time, the possibility of utilizing the renewable resources such as solar, wind, geothermal has been provided for us more than before, and development of this science is making progress. But those energies can be chosen as one of the renewable and alternative energies instead of fossil fuels which are cheap as possible and have fewer environmental impacts. Since no attention to economic issues lead to that the use of these energies be just for groups dedicated to specific segments of society.

Whilst many renewable energy projects are large-scale, renewable technologies are also suited to rural and remote areas, where energy is often crucial in human development. With population growth in today’s world, the need to the building has increased and to respond to this demand, the countries tend to use the industrial building materials and decline the use of indigenous and traditional materials.

These factors in spite of increasing the energy consumption in the industry section; they can also raise the cost of house and are considered as the barrier for users to obtain the basic needs of the life. The problem of users is losing the power and ability of design and building their own homes by themselves. Two factors that prevent aboriginal people from building their homes are high cost building materials and labor and also maybe long transportation. One of the solutions for this problem can be Solve In following Manner.

• Use of affordable recycled materials in buildings
• Using the method of regenerating through proper education to In the past, the glass was common in packing some foods such as milk and etc. They could be returned to the factory for using again for the same purpose. But now by changing the human’s disposal culture, glass bottles have been replaced by plastic bottles, as they have increasingly become one of the substances of destruction of the landfills because they decompose in a long time. Two alternative solutions against the plastic bottle disposal are recycling and reusing process. Recycling needs additional energy to treat the materials for producing something usable. Moreover, the recycling process produces wastewater and air pollutants. So the best solution is reusing for which no additional energy is required and does not contribute to pollution. Indeed, when we reuse junk, we are helping to save the obtained energy which would otherwise be wasted. It is focused on not only the financial aspect but also the environmental aspect.

Plastics are produced from the oil that is considered as nonrenewable resource. Because plastic has the insolubility about 300 years in the nature, it is considered as a sustainable waste and environmental pollutant. So reusing or recycling of it can be effectual in mitigation of environmental impacts relating to it. It has been proven that the use of plastic bottles as innovative materials for building can be a proper solution for replacement of conventional materials. The use of this material has been considered not only for exterior walls but also for the ceiling of the building. This work is to investigate the using of plastic bottles as municipal wastes in the buildings, the key and positive characteristics of this product and the benefits obtained by using it in building. It also intends to compare the characteristics of some construction materials such as brick, ceramic and concrete block with bottle panel.

Plastic have many good characteristics which include versatility, light-ness, hardness, and resistant to chemicals, water and impact. Plastic is one of the most disposable materials in the modern world. It makes up much of the street side litter in urban and rural areas. It is rapidly filling up landfills as choking water bodies. Plastic bottles make up approximately 11% of the content landfills, causing serious environmental consequences. Due to the consequences some of the plastic facts are as follow:

• More than 20,000 plastic bottles are needed to obtain one ton of
• It is estimated that 100 million tons of plastic are produced each
• The average European throws away 36 of plastics each year.
• Some plastic waste sacks are made from 64% recycled plastic.
• Plastics packaging totals 42% of total consumption and every year little of this is

According to ENSO Bottles, in the 1960’s plastic bottle production has been negligible but over the years there was an alarming increase in bottles produced and sold but the rate of recycling is still very.

Plastics are produced from the oil that is considered as non-renewable resource. Because plastic has the insolubility about 300 years in the nature, it is considered as a sustainable waste and environmental pollutant. So reusing or recycling of it can be effectual in mitigation of environmental impacts relating to it. It has been proven that the use of plastic bottles as innovative materials for building can be a proper solution for replacement of conventional materials. The use of this material has been considered not only for exterior walls but also for the ceiling of the building. The objective of this work is to investigate the key and positive characteristics of this product and the benefits obtained by using it in building. It also intends to compare the characteristics of some construction materials such as brick, ceramic and concrete block with bottle. One can use solar bomb (bottle filled with bleaching powder solution) will be fitted on the roof for light source.

1.2                                  PROBLEM STATEMENT

Now-a-days, the major problem of human being is the power and ability of design and building their own homes by themselves. Two factors that prevent aboriginal people from building their homes are high cost building materials (such as brick, ceramic and concrete block) and labor and also maybe long transportation. One of the solutions for this problem is to use recycle plastics for construction of materials such as brick, ceramic and concrete block with bottle.

1.3                     AIM AND OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY

The main aim of this study is to investigate the practice of the use of Recycled Plastic Bottles (RPB) for a sustainable community-based housing project in Ogun State Nigeria. The objectives are:

1. to investigate the application of plastic bottles which is one of the urban waste in building construction
2. that how it can lead to sustainable development .

• It also mentions some ways for self-standing and insulating them in thermal and sound point of view and some positive points which this material have versus

1.4                             SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY

The use of recycle plastics provides a cheap means of building house because of the availability of the plastics bottles in our environment. This research work will throw more light on the best techniques for constructing building materials such as brick, ceramic and concrete block. This study will also be designed to be of immense benefit to all the consumers of plastic drinks in that it will open their eyes to another useful way of using the plastic bottle.

1.5                                                        LIMITATION OF THE STUDY

As we all know that no human effort to achieve a set of goals goes without difficulties, certain constraints were encountered in the course of carrying out this project and they are as follows:-

Difficulty in information collection: I found it too difficult in laying hands of useful information regarding this work and this course me to visit different libraries and internet for solution.

Financial Constraint:    Insufficient fund tends to impede the efficiency of the researcher in sourcing for the relevant materials, literature or information and in the process of data collection (internet, questionnaire and interview).

Time Constraint:   The researcher will simultaneously engage in this study with other academic work. This consequently will cut down on the time devoted for the research work

1.6                                             RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

In the course of carrying this study, numerous sources were used which most of them are by visiting libraries, consulting journal and news papers and online research which Google was the major source that was used.

1.7                                     PROJECT ORGANIZATION

The work is organized as follows: chapter one discuses the introductory part of the work,   chapter two presents the literature review of the study,  chapter three describes the methods applied, chapter four discusses the results of the work, chapter five summarizes the research outcomes and the recommendations.

CHAPTER FIVE

5.1                  CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS

The challenge of waste management and housing are among the issues of utmost concern in many African countries, Nigeria inclusive. The study has explored the possibilities of addressing the double-barrel problem of plastic waste pollution and the shortage of housing in Nigeria and beyond. The study showed that recycled plastic bottles (RPB) built homes is one of the proactive approaches to addressing the problem of the housing shortage in Nigeria by tightening the budget for a housing project and reducing the environmental impacts of construction as well as plastic waste generation. The study revealed the significance of building with recycled plastic bottles in today’s sustainable development era. The study also gave theoretical and methodological insights on the knowledge and practice of sustainable green building and likewise revealed the factors inhibiting its growth as well as the challenges being faced by the stakeholders in its adoption, and the benefits derivable from embracing recycled plastic bottles built homes.

Based on the findings of the study, it was recommended that using plastic bottles in building eco-friendly and affordable homes in Nigeria will serve as an alternative method of annexing the economic potentials of plastic waste to promote social empowerment, training, housing and development, that engender the utilization of indigenous knowledge, innovation, creativity and local resources in accomplishing the goals of sustainable development in Nigeria and beyond.