Hyderabad Just Built Its First Bus Stop With Recycled Plastic Bottles

Creating a public sustainable structure usually has a bit of red tape involved. One way to get past that red tape is to say “screw it” and go ahead and build whatever you have in mind. That’s exactly what the ‘Bamboo House India’ a a Hyderabad-based social enterprise did! The result? Handshakes from the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC), happiness from community members and future contracts on the way.

Hyderabad has a lack of bus shelters and with the monsoons on the way residents of the Swaroopnagar colony in Uppal requested the local municipality to erect a shelter on street number 10/ on a local street. The lack of a response can most likely be attributed to officials conveniently becoming hard of hearing at the proposal of six figure contractor rates.

‘Bamboo House India’ decided to help out and bypassed the bureaucratic bs by erecting a bus shelter as a part of their ‘Recycle India’ initiative, made up over a thousand one-litre , plastic bottles.

The bottles are connected by a series of ropes that are attached to a secure metal frame. This structure took two weeks to complete and cost only INR 15, 000 compared to lakhs quoted to the government by contractors. Although the shelter was built as a temporary, transportable model given the Bamboo House was unsure of the Government’s reaction to the structure, it seems as if it will be a permanent feature on street number 10 of the Swaroopnagar colony. Local officials were so delighted with the structure they are currently in talks with the Bamboo House India on seven other potential projects.

One of the founders of Bamboo House India, Prashant, explained to TNM that the bus stop shelter is merely a prototype to understand how the bottles withstand the sun and rain. Hopefully, the Bamboo House will learn enough to from this stand to make Hyderabad a hot bed for their Recyle India Initiative.

Feature Image Source: The News Minute