Students and professors at the New York Institute of Technology (NYIT) have collaborated to redesign the shipping pallets commonly used in the beverage industry. Their new pallet, the SodaBIB can be broken apart by hand and used as a substructure to build thatch roofs from discarded soda bottles. The bottles’ bodies are crushed, and then threaded into the pallet pieces—the bottle caps hold everything in place so no nails, screws or tools are necessary! The SodaBIB is envisioned as a dual-purpose method for dealing with waste plastic bottles while providing efficient shelter with no material cost in relief areas and developing countries. A small prototype roof was constructed last year, and held up well in tests—so now the team has launched a Kickstarter Campaign to raise funds for the construction of their first full-scale proof-of-concept model.
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