A home built using more than 600,000 recycled plastic bottles is on the market in Nova Scotia.



Business partners Joel German and David Saulnier, of JD Composites, unveiled their project in Meteghan River earlier this week, and the home is believed to be the first of its kind.



“We decided to give it a go with 100 per cent recycled products from Armacell, a foam producer out of Brampton, Ont.,” Saulnier explained to CTV News Channel on Wednesday. “We used their raw product and we designed our [panels] and we were able to pull off a 2000-square-foot beach house made completely of recycled PET(polyethylene terephthalate) plastic.”



Saulnier said his crew started to design the home in May 2018 and took about three weeks to laminate the 172 panels the house is constructed from. At the end of September, the team erected the walls of the home in a single day and spent the winter finishing the interior.



“It’s a pretty fast build once all the panels are done,” Saulnier explained. “It comes together rather quickly.”



The designer explained the plastic panelling was tested to stand up to extreme weather and also to withstand “326 mile per hour winds… twice a Category 5 hurricane.”



The builder said the panels also act as the insulation for the house, which can maintain the home’s temperature very efficiently.



“There’s nothing to transmit the cold air from the outside to the inside of the home,” Saulnier said. “We have a unique way of preventing any cold from coming through the butt joints in our panels. We devised a pretty slick method of stopping the cold in its tracks.”



Saulnier estimates the energy efficiency of the house will save the homeowner up to $80,000 over 25 years.



As for the asking price? Saulnier said he’s still “kicking around the numbers.”



“Our price points are very competitive of what’s conventional out there right now,” the builder said. “I think the advantage is not only from the green aspect, saving the environment of course… I think the price points are going to be very close to conventional construction. However, in a 25-year mortgage, I’m estimating, with conventional energy costs, you can save between $50 to $80,000 in 25 years.”



For now, Saulnier plans to list the home on Airbnb.



