A house made of plastic soda bottles can withstand winds twice as strong as a Category-5 hurricane. Take a look inside.

JD Composites Inc.

• Hurricanes are becoming stronger and more devastating, generating the need for new technologies that keep homes safe.
• A Canadian construction firm recently built a home made of plastic panels that it claims can hold up during a Category-5 hurricane. 
• While plastic is often sturdier than conventional building materials, the home is still missing features like steel shutters and hurricane straps.
• Visit Business Insider’s homepage for more.

Hurricane Barry didn’t create as much damage as predecessors like Katrina or Harvey, but it did serve as a reminder that hurricanes are becoming stronger and more devastating. 

When the Category-1 storm hit the Louisiana coast on Saturday, it prompted around 75,000 homes and businesses to lose power. If the wind speeds had picked up, they might have been powerful enough to uproot trees or damage homes.

While designing homes to withstand hurricanes often requires extra cash, construction companies are slowly finding new ways to bring hurricane-safe features to the masses. 

Recently, a Canadian construction firm called JD Composites built a 2,000-square-foot home made of recycled plastic bottles that can also withstand Category 5 winds. 

Take a look inside the sleek (but sound) structure.

It took more than 600,000 plastic soda bottles to construct the home’s paneled walls.

JD Composites Inc.

The bottles were shredded, melted, then injected with a gas that turned them into foam. That foam was then molded into 6-inch-thick panels, which formed the walls of the home.

 

 

 

The plastic bottles were rejected by the recycling industry.

JD Composites Inc.

As recycling becomes more expensive for local governments, many cities have resorted to disposing of recyclable goods in landfills. Batches of recycling that carry non-recyclable items like greasy pizza boxes or yogurt cups can also be discarded as trash. 

Read more: China is refusing to take ‘foreign garbage’ from the US, so these 6 cities are burning or throwing away your recycling

The panels took only 7 hours to build, but they’re sturdier than most.

JD Composites Inc.

The home contains 170 panels in total, which are bonded together with chemicals instead of traditional nails and shingles, which can come loose during a hurricane. 

See the rest of the story at Business Insider

See Also:

• Venice, the Great Barrier Reef, and other World Heritage Sites are threatened by rising seas, massive storms, and extreme heat. Take a look at the damage.
• Hurricane Barry is weakening as it moves over Louisiana, but heavy rain and flooding could still worsen — here are the latest updates
• The climate crisis is inherently unfair. These 9 countries will get hit especially hard as the globe heats up.

SEE ALSO: A $6 million floating home that can withstand Category 4 hurricanes is now a reality. Take a look inside.

Source: Business Insider – feedback@businessinsider.com (Aria Bendix)