To many Nigerians, the dream of owning their own houses is a pipe dream given the harsh economic realities of our time. But the Office of Sustainability of the American University of Nigeria (AUN) in Yola, Adamawa State seems to have found a way to make the dream real with their unusual, cheap and environment-friendly building materials.
In this chat with Financial Vanguard in Yola, Professor Charles Reith, Interim Provost & Director of Sustainability Initiatives and Mr Dahiru Adamu, Head of Water Resources Unit,  Works & Maintenance Department spoke on the project and its impact on the environment. Today, we feature AUN’s eco-bricks, said to be more durable than normal bricks. Reith noted that the University is saving about N600,000 monthly in waste disposal. Excerpts:

By Ebele Orakpo

The goal of the Sustainability Initiative, according to Professor Margee Ensign, President of AUN, “is to spur local economic development by providing hands-on training for local people while at the same time protecting and enhancing the natural environment, thus preserving it for future generations.

So Professor Charles Reith, Director of Sustainability,  came up with the idea of making bricks using empty plastic bottles.

“This is actually something that I put together to build an eco-bench so I sought permission to have the students build the bench. My overall budget was N4,000,” said the Professor of Environmental Science.

Under normal circumstances, a plastic bottle has a very short service life but when it is re-used, as in the case of eco-bricks, it lasts much longer.

Making eco-bricks:

“The process involves filling  empty plastic bottles with sand. You really have to pack the sand in and once you do, it is much more durable than a brick; it will last a really, really long time because it is plastic and non-biodegradable (cannot be decomposed by micro-organisms), it has better tensile strength, it is more durable and longer lived. A bottle can be filled with sand in 45 seconds,” said Reith, adding that eco-bricks can be used to make much more cost-effective houses, walls, benches etc., which can last a very long time.

From constructing benches,  the students went on to costruct walls using eco-bricks.
Mr Dahiru Adamu went a step further. He put up an impressive self-contained apartment using eco-bricks and other waste materials.

Speaking with Financial Vanguard, Adamu said the project cost him about N380,000 which covered “the cost of toilet fittings, cement used in plastering and chicken net used to partition the wall,  labour for masons, painters and eco-builders. I paid the eco-builders just feeding allowance since it is a program I designed to train youths,” said Adamu.

Asked why he used thatch for roofing, Adamu said: “I used thatch for three reasons:  It is affordable and can be sourced free; the weather in Yola is hot and thatch has the ability to make the rooms cool and since it is my private property, I am creating a village setting for my family.”

“Most of the eco-bricks are filled with sand, so they are opaque. However, one can fill them with something clear such as ground glass and they will be translucent. The translucent bricks will let light pass through, which will give the room a more airy feeling than if no extra light were to be getting in,” noted Reith.

Impact on environment:
“The essence of recycling is that you are creating jobs to replace activities that otherwise rely basically on natural resources,” said Reith.

For Prof. Ensign,”It is not just cleaning our environment, but creating income for those without jobs. That is Social Entrepreneurship in practice.”