Integrating Cob-Earth material and Sand-Filled Plastic Bottles to Combat Environmental Challenges: A Sustainable Construction Solution

With all the environmental threats that the world is facing by the day, the need for solutions that address such challenges keeps arising more than any previous time. It has become quite factual now that the harms directly caused by the construction industry and plastic waste generation significantly represent the highest negative influence on the environment. Cement-based concrete structures and their carbon emissions remain the highest contributors to the global predicament. Similarly, plastic bottle waste still presents a daily risk of worsening the solid waste situation. Therefore, innovative solutions that merge more than one environmental dilemma together become essential to prioritize. With regards to the growing problem of plastic bottle waste and the reliance on cement-based construction methods, this paper seeks to address this aspect. The research's primary contribution is the thorough testing and evaluation of the proposed cob and plastic bottle combination to proceed with a larger prototype. An array of investigations has been included to determine the weight-carrying capability and load distribution within a prototype that includes different plastic bottle patterns. The samples with the cob mix and designed bottles pattern projected the highest load resistance subjected to more than 4800 kgs which exceeded the results of the other tested samples and was accordingly selected to be used in the larger prototype. Furthermore, this study explores the utilization of cob earth material to create an exterior finishing layer in an effort to lessen the additional need for cement.