Zero Waste Plastic Bottles in the World

 BUVAD innovatively turns accumulating hazardous waste of waste plastic bottles into a utility, avoiding harm to humans, environmental depletion and embracing nature conservation.

The commonest method of disposing off of waste plastic bottles in Africa is by burning and careless littering! Burning of waste plastic bottles raises the carbon print levels in the environment.

Each 10,000ltrs water tank built using waste plastic bottles without burning saves the environment of 4333.33 of carbon. 5500 waste plastic bottles are used to build a 10000 litres.

The BUVAD controlling waste plastic bottles’ innovation reduces soil suffocation, water bodies’ pollution by waste plastic bottles and triggers beneficiary minds towards nature conservation.

The BUVAD water tanks constructed using waste plastic bottles as bricks are very durable and much cheaper in cost. 

These bottle-brick tanks increase safe water storage levels.

With regular handwashing urgency in this COVID-19 pandemic era, bottle-tanks reduce pressure on public water sources.

Uganda like many other countries around the world is grappling with waste plastic bottles management problem. Kayunga is the focal area of BUVAD and key among the waste plastic bottle affected Districts in Uganda.

Kayunga is an agro based district where the accumulating waste plastic bottles have led to a decline in the income per capita due to the worsening suffocation rate of the soils by waste plastic bottles. Also, water channels are being blocked while water bodies are being polluted by these carelessly disposed waste plastic bottles.

The Improper waste plastics disposal and absence of a monetary value for the used waste plastic bottles have worsened the environmental crisis.

This crisis is more severe in urban and peri-urban centres, attributed to poor societal attitude towards the environment and lack of consciousness to our surroundings.  

Government way back, tried to ban the use of plastics.It was done but with futility.

Re-using waste plastic bottles to construct affordable rainwater harvesting tanks is an innovative approach by BUVAD which is aimed at helping Ugandans eliminate the environmental hazard of accumulating carelessly littered waste plastic bottles without burning to minimize on carbon emissions and raise environmental awareness, while using the waste plastic bottles profitably to harvest rainwater in communities, substituting mud bricks that require cutting trees to bake them. 

Furthering this innovative technology of affordable waste plastic bottle bricks-water harvesting tanks construction, BUVAD has been conducting training workshops for at least 80 parents as participants at each of the selected community primary schools in Kayunga District of Uganda, followed by creation of trainees' community chains - water tanks construction cooperatives targeting the self construction of more water harvesting tanks for their households. At each training workshop, the host school benefits with one water tank of 10,000 ltrs capacity. The approach is that with BUVAD funding towards material subsidy the created community chains water tanks construction cooperatives group/s will go constructing for each member. Hence, the system will promote replication where the innovation will be introduced.

A monitoring and self-assessment process in which BUVAD staff and community reference personnel are involved is upheld. 

Kayunga District located in the remote central region of Uganda has a population that has grown tremendously from 295,000 people (2002 Population census) to 359,153 people (2014 population census), of which 93 % dwell in rural areas. Kayunga District has a cultural diversity of more than 52 tribes, some of which are from the neighboring countries like Rwanda, Burundi, Congo, Somalia, Kenya, Sudan, Tanzania and India.

Re-using waste plastic bottles to construct affordable rainwater harvesting tanks is an innovative approach aimed at helping Ugandans eliminate the environmental hazard of accumulating carelessly littered waste plastic bottles without burning to minimize on carbon emissions and raise environmental awareness, while using the waste plastic bottles profitably to harvest rainwater in communities, substituting mud bricks that require cutting trees to bake them.

Kayunga is an agro based district where the accumulating waste plastic bottles have led to a decline in the income per capita due to the worsening suffocation rate of the soils by waste plastic bottles. Also, water channels are being blocked while water bodies are being polluted by these carelessly disposed waste plastic bottles. 
The Improper waste plastics disposal and absence of a monetary value for the used waste plastic bottles have worsened the environmental crisis.
This crisis is more severe in urban and peri-urban centers, attributed to poor societal attitude towards the environment and lack of consciousness to our surroundings.  Government way back, tried to ban the use of plastics. It was done but with futility.
The most important issue is to come up with a sustainably profitable approach like the BUVAD approach of Re-using the waste plastic bottles to build rainwater harvesting tanks in affordable capacities to user communities. It’s upon these findings that BUVAD, after a study of the area problems together with the community and local council leadership, mobilized to come up with mitigative  approaches to the outstanding health and environmental problems. 

BUVAD has conducted a baseline survey to learn from the natives on how environmental hazards like waste plastic bottles have affected them and has furthered this innovation in training workshops to involve them in dissemination of the innovation.

More can be learn in the following online video.

A documentary about re-using waste plastic bottles to build rain water harvesting tanks in so far 24 primary schools for primary school children Link:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wbY_e2Xs5OI&feature=youtu.be

At the end of each bottle-brick rainwater harvesting tank innovation technology dissemination workshop,  50 to 80 trained members who are attendees to the workshop are helped to form village chain bottle-brick water harvesting tanks construction cooperatives . These are voluntarily constructing water tanks as teams at each others' household to benefit about 960(above) household members per construction cooperative. This has accelerated local vigilance in controlling the accumulation of carelessly littered waste plastic bottles and their ha

Each beneficiary host school gains a free 10,000ltrs water harvesting tank, which shall serve above 600 pupils and 11 teachers per school.

BUVAD has disseminated the bottle brick construction technology to  the people of Kayunga District and has majorly specialised in teaching them how to build rain water harvesting tanks and latrines using waste plastic bottles as bricks. 

So far 22 dissemination workshops have been conducted with 10.000 ltrs bottle bricks  tank that were a result of the traings are donated to the workshop host school. 

Out of these workshops the created  construction coops have constructed 32 self constructed bottle brick  rain water harvesting.  Three 4-stance toilets/latrines have been built at work camps for 3  community primary schools in Kayunga District of Uganda.

Butakoola Village Association for Development (BUVAD) uses a workforce mainly of volunteers who are enthusiastic indigenous people to promote its mission, minimizing on costs but maximizing on impact.

BUVAD turns accumulating hazardous waste of waste plastic bottles into a utility, avoiding harm to humans, environmental depletion and embracing nature conservation. 

359,153 people

• Levels of waste plastic bottles disposal
• Afforestation levels in project areas
• Numbers of maintained water bodies and sources
• Sanitation, hygiene and water storage levels in the beneficiary communities.
• Numbers of abused children
• Wild game and aquatic game protection reports in legal offices
• Numbers of children benefiting from the constructed water tanks
• Level of climate change effects especially seasonal imbalances after a 2 year period.

6 full time and 4 volunteers

We are a team of innovatively minded local people working together with local builders.

Training more people in our technology as we go out to disseminate the BUVAD bottle brick technology.

We are currently implementing a great women empowering innovation on a mild scale but wish to scale it up in order to have a significant impact.

Water scarcity is the key poly-dimensional cause of women abuse within the communities of Kayunga. 

BUVAD has developed a lasting solution to this challenge and is currently implementing an innovation of re-using waste plastic bottles mainly among women to construct environmental friendly utilities like; cheap affordable rain water harvesting tanks.

Through this project, BUVAD intends to relieve women of life threats
and insecurities involved with water fetching, solve the unsafe water
challenge and stimulate end user community vigilance in constructive
disposal of waste plastic bottles, by conducting training workshops
that will address training of participants in re-using waste plastic
bottles to construct cheap-affordable durable rain water harvesting tanks in their households.

BUVAD targets to disseminate basic information on women rights, women security, solve the quest for water, train participants in climate change issues resilience, management of land and aquatic nature annually within the next three years.

We intend to starting earning some money from the bottle brick tanks by charging a cost other than only donations. This will be one of the organizations social ventures for income generation.

Organizations focused on supporting indigenous innovations  and hard to fund projects.

The aim is to empower women and their children whom are the key water fetchers in their households with cheaply available water in their rainwater harvesting tanks constructed at the women’s households, to overcome the dirty water related diseases challenge and water their vegetable gardens near their homes for improved nutrition throughout the year. In these communities’ water is fetched from far valleys and other distant isolated places which have also culminated into other problems like; rape, time delays, defilement, snake bites, motorcycle accidents etc.

 Watch this short YouTube videos of;

A documentary about how bottle tanks are benefitting women. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vPZN61P6CXo