Thermal Performance of Plastic Bottles Walls Reused in Building Construction for Waste Reduction

Abstract

The research aims at studying the potential of reusing plastic water bottles as a building material and an alternative to traditional bricks, in a way that can minimize waste and hence reduce ecological imbalance. The research compares the energy performance of building with traditional bricks and building with plastic bottle blocks. The researchers built digitally two sample rooms: (3 meter width*3 meter length*3 meter Height) with both materials, Then they took on-site measurements for energy performance of the rooms. The rooms were built on DesignBuilder software in order to help in environmental analysis of buildings, and compare the efficiency of the two materials of sample rooms. Results showed that building with plastic water bottles has some environmental benefits other than reuse of a material that hardly decomposes. It has its effects on energy saving and thermal comfort. Further research and experiments is encouraged as the plastic residue dilemma grows more in modern societies and affects the ecological balance and wild life.