india

Updated: Oct 03, 2019 11:10 IST

In a way to give a message about how to use plastic in a constructive manner, a couple from Uttar Pradesh has built a homestay made of plastic bottles in Hartola village of Nainital district, Uttarakhand.

Over 26,000 bottles were used to make the four-room homestay.

Deepti Sharma, a school teacher in Meerut who also loves travelling, built the house along with her husband as they wanted to give a message of using plastic in a better way in the mountains, instead of making the Himalayas a dumping ground.

“We travel a lot to the mountains and every time we go to a place, we are just disappointed to see the amount of plastic waste that is generated in the mountains without any scope of recycling or proper disposal. That is when it struck us that we wanted to do something using plastic that is generated in the mountains. We believe that either people should recycle plastic in the mountains or take back the plastic waste generated by them, but not harm the mountains with all the waste,” said Sharma.

100 bottles were tied together and then covered with mesh wire to keep it intact ( HT photo )

After the registry and completion of this project, the couple has planned to approach the locals and officials to spread the word on how plastic can be used to build houses, small public toilets and shops.

“We are in the process of registering the homestay and it should be done in another month’s time. Once that is done, we will be pitching this idea to officials,” said Abhishek Anand, co-owner of the house who also handles the bookings for the homestay.

“We used plastic bottles to build patches of walls which were then joined together to make a whole wall. For one patch of wall, 100 bottles were tied together and then covered with mesh wire to keep it intact. Apart from plastic, we used old tyres for the flooring and stairs,” added Sharma.

Whiskey bottles were used to make lamps for the house, which can accommodate eight people. The place has four different rooms of 10 feet by 11 feet.

Anand further said, “We started building the house in February 2017 and it took us almost one and half years to construct the whole place. During a trip to Lansdowne in 2016, we decided that we want to have a house in the mountains and not in Noida or Ghaziabad. That is when we started planning this project and we bought the land in 2017 and started work.” The cost of building the house was nearly Rs 1.5 lakh, including labour and raw materials.

Plastic helps in better insulation from cold. ( HT photo )

He further mentioned that at present they are building a system for rainwater harvesting in this house and want to construct a 10,000-liter tank where the rainwater could be harvested for the entire village.

Speaking of the benefits of the house, Sharma added, “It is not just that we were able to reuse plastic, but also that plastic helps in better insulation from cold, which can be quite helpful in such a place.”

Indrish Gupta, who visited the homestay this July said, “The homestay is at an excellent location, completely away from the pollution of Delhi. The beauty of this place cannot be explained in words.”