Dazzling 'dream house’ made out of plastic bottles

A traffic policeman is turning heads with his environment-friendly dream house made out of sand-filled discarded plastic bottles in Latia area of Homna, Cumilla.

The house is almost complete except the roof, said Shafiqul Islam, the owner. “It’ll look more beautiful once the roof is constructed.”

Located beside the road at Ward No. 9, the impressive five-room structure is attracting the people passing by. Many sceptics are touching the wall to dispel their doubts.

“The house will remain cool in summer and hot in winter because of the sand in the bottles,” Shafiqul said, as he tirelessly tried to quench the people’s curiosity and answer their endless queries with patience.

He said the most common question he gets is what inspired him to choose plastic bottles as construction material.

Speaking to UNB, he said he got the idea from a newspaper article in 2011.

The report about a three-storied house in Japan made of plastic bottles took him to YouTube and he went on to do more research.

“I’ve so far used 80,000 bottles and have over 20,000 in stock,” he said. “I bought these bottles from trash shops in Dhaka and Cumilla.”

Reports about the house have piqued the interest of Homna upazila engineer Jahirul Islam, who told UNB that he would visit it soon.

Shafiqul said he first made two and a half feet foundation for the house before builidng the wall.

“Fire won't spread as every bottle is filled with sand and it won’t be damaged by earthquakes either because of the construction material,” he said.

“On top of it all, the house cost 30 per cent less than a brick house would,” Shafiqul said.