How Lego Like Recycled Plastic Is Creating Housing For The Homeless

There is nothing better than the feeling of killing two birds with one stone. When a single solution can take two, serious problems and make progress on solving both of them, that is how a lot of progress is made in a short period of time. This is particularly true when it comes to environmental and social issues. Which is why the changes being made by Columbia’s Concept Plastics are such a big deal.

Recycling Innovations: Plastic Houses For The Homeless?

Oscar Mendez looked around one day, and realized that the homelessness problems he saw were not getting solved. While there were economic concerns, joblessness, and other contributing factors, the main problem was there were people who needed homes that didn’t have them. That was the problem Oscar set his sights on, and with his company Concept Plastics, he found a rather unique solution.

What Concept Plastics does is recycle molded plastic and rubber, the sort that winds up choking our garbage dumps and waste facilities, and turn it into molded bricks. These bricks, which operate a lot like Lego blocks in that you can just hammer them into place, were then used to build low-cost housing. In fact, a single team of four workers can assemble a 430 square-foot house in as little as 5 days. That’s impressive enough on its own, but when you add the fact that this endeavor has already eaten up over 300 tons of waste plastic that would otherwise sit useless in the ground, the value the company has created is truly undeniable.

They have no intention of stopping any time soon, either. As long as there’s a need, and supplies available, Concept Plastics will have everything it needs to keep building a safer, greener future. If you’d like more information about them, checkout the video below.