This factory in the Ivory Coast is turning plastic waste into classrooms

The Ivory Coast local community has partnered with UNICEF to use plastic waste from landfills to produce the plastic bricks used to build the schools.

These school classrooms are entirely constructed of plastic waste collected in Ivory Coast – in a country where as many as 1.6 million children do not go to school. One reason for this is the insufficient number of schools and classrooms. However, as of 2018, plastic waste from local landfills has been recycled into 26 new school classrooms.

However, UNICEF and Colombian company Conceptos Plásticos have jointly developed technology for the processing of plastic waste into bricks and intend to build 528 classrooms in Ivory Coast over the next two years. The bricks used for the construction are made entirely of plastic waste, have good insulating properties, are not flammable, do not leak water and, most importantly, are much cheaper than the conventional building materials used.