Barishal’s unique plastic bottle house

A one-storey structure being constructed using plastic bottles at Rajihar in Barishal's Agailjhara upazila is fast becoming the talk of the entire district.

Palash Chadra Barai, the owner of the building, says it will be the first building of its kind in the entire southern region.

It is being constructed on 15 decimals of a land at a cost of Tk six lakh. Barai, who is a dentist by profession, claims the structure will be even stronger than a house made of just bricks.

The 1,512 square feet house is 43-feet long and 36-feet wide, and will be 18-feet high, he said, adding it will be strong enough to withstand earthquakes and tornadoes.

Barai said he was inspired by a Youtube video of such a building and for several years watched many other similar videos before finally deciding to building a plastic bottle house himself.

"Six months ago, such a house was built in Madaripur. I visited it and learned various things and started building this bottle house," he said.

Of course the house is not entirely made out of plastic bottles. Barai said he has used some bricks and mostly bottles filled with sand. The walls are made using cement, while the ground floor and roof were constructed using iron rods.

"My dream was to build such a house and finally it is going to happen. These types of houses are very popular abroad, especially Japan," he added.

Lincon Bayen, coordinator, Bangladesh Environment Lawyers Association (BELA), said, "Plastic bottles are one of the reasons behind environment pollution, so this type of building reduces the pollution."