Effectiveness of waste plastic bottles as construction material in Rohingya displacement camps

Bangladesh is currently hosting about 1.30 million Rohingya people in its southeastern region, the most persecuted ethnic minority of the world. The present semi structured living shelters mostly made of bamboo and plastic sheets, are not resistant to environmental disasters like- monsoon rain, cyclone, mudslide, and prone to cause vector borne diseases. This study developed plastic brick, where a waste 500 mL polyethylene terephthalate bottle was utilized which was manually compacted with air dried fine sand as the filler material. Cardboard frame was used to shape the brick like a normal clay brick. The filled bottle was placed at the central portion of the frame where hand blended mortar was used to cover the whole frame up to the marked dimensions. The prepared brick samples were subjected to compression test and the average strength obtained was 2.88 and 3.29 N/mm2 for 14- and 28-day crushing age samples, respectively and demonstrated a high potential for the bricks to be used in construction works. The hazard due to environmental disasters in the displacement camps along with managing plastic waste, utilization of plastic brick can be a low cost, useful, and sustainable way towards a safe and rigid living structure.