JD Composites is a construction company that is working under the leadership of Joel German and David Saulnier. The Canadian builders have come up with a new and unique way of transforming plastic waste into environmentally friendly housing. JD Composites has recently constructed a three-bedroom home using more than 600,000 plastic water bottles.
The house has been constructed along the Meteghan River in Nova Scotia by JD Composites, and you won’t be able to tell just by looking at it that it has been constructed using plastic water bottles. German and Saulnier shredded and then heated the water bottles to create plastic pellets and then placed them into a hopper.
Once they were in the hopper, they were treated using gases, thus melting them into a foam. Upon cooling, this foam becomes solid and is rot and mildew resistant. Leaders of the JD Composites then utilized the polyethylene terephthalate (PET) panels for creating the walls of the green home with a thickness of 5.9 inches.
Other than the fact that the used plastic would have ended up in a landfill or the ocean, it is also noteworthy that these panels are able to survive the harsh weather conditions as well. German and Saulnier actually sent a sample of the panel for endurance testing to Mississauga, Ontario and found out that the panel was able to survive winds that had a speed of 326 mph. That is twice as strong as a category 5 hurricane, in case you were wondering. Furthermore, the panels are lightweight and didn’t sustain any damage despite the fact that the wind tunnel reached its maximum force.
The hardened foam has been covered using a fiberglass skin on both sides, and UV paint has been applied for the sake of protecting the material from sunlight. JD Composites will be putting the house up for sale but might also consider renting it out on Airbnb if it is unable to find a buyer.
As German said, ‘If it doesn’t sell, it’s fine. It’s our first one. We’re sort of attached to it.’