Get a whole year of cutting-edge eco-building news for just £24.00 pa.
Built upon 30 years of experience, this fabulous new medium will feature inspiring and in-depth articles on eco-building projects from across the spectrum and from all over the UK, most of which are written by the very people that designed or built them. Perfect for architects, builders, developers, self builders and anyone interested in keeping right up-to-date with green building trends and friends.
For subscription options:
please go here
|
|
|
Easter Island to build with tyres and bottles |
|
 
|
|
|
|
26 Apr 2012, 6:01 PM
|
As many as 80,000 tourists visit Easter Island each year, exploring both the unique culture and the beautiful landscape of the island. Although this tourism supports the island’s economy, it comes at a high cost. During the high season, this influx of visitors generates up to eight tons of trash daily.
|
The landfill that serves Easter Island’s 6,000 residents is unable to absorb the amount of garbage created by the increased population of tourist season.
Searching for a solution to this problem, the municipality came up with an idea that may become an example for all of Chile. It is establishing a campaign that teaches the islanders to separate and recycle their garbage, with the final goal of using some of the recyclable materials to create a public building constructed completely from recycled glass, tires, and plastic bottles.
“We live off of tourism, it is our economic base; therefore, we must care for our land and take charge of the environmental problems that have arisen as a result of tourism,” explained the island’s mayor, Luz del Carmen Zasso.
The completed building will be 170 square meters in size and will use a diverse array of recycled materials. Glass bottles will be used as an aggregate for mixing cement. Tires, the only waste material that cannot be removed from the island, will be used for the building’s foundation. “Eco-bricks” made of plastic bottles filled with smaller pieces of plastic will also be used in the construction.
“It will be the first building on the island – and in Chile – made entirely with eco-bricks,” Anna María Gutiérrez, of the Department of Environmental Management, told Chilean newspaper La Tercera. Gutiérrez, who is in charge of the project, further explained that the building will be powered with solar energy.
Approximately 7,000 bottles will be used in the construction of the EcoCasa. It is estimated that visitors and residents of the island dispose of around 160,000 bottles every year, enough material to build more than ten houses. Gonzalo Iglesias, the general manager of Coca-Cola Chile, told La Tercera that with this project, “waste becomes a benefit”.
Coca-Cola Chile is working with the Undersecretary of Regional Development, the Ministry of Energy and the Municipality of Easter Island to finance the project, which will cost $49 million CLP.
The EcoCasa will house a recycling center and will use a system of cross-ventilation that will make the use of air conditioning unnecessary during the summer. The building’s gutters will be designed to transport some of the 1,100 millimeters of rain that fall of the island every year to a pond, and from there the water will be funneled to the network that delivers water to toilets and sinks in homes all across the island.
“The idea of the project,” Gutiérrez concluded, “is to show the community that it is possible to reuse garbage in many different ways.” Gutiérrez and the Department of Environmental Management hope to show that trash, often discarded without thought for its potential harms or benefits, can be much more than just waste.
Credits:: Megan Holahan / I Love Chile
|
|
|
|
