Recycling Glass Bottles
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Q: I work at a winery and I wish to use the discarded bottles from the tasting room to build a shed on my land. If successful, I would eventually like to build a small cottage as well. I've just started to research, but have not found a definitive source for building a glass bottle structure. Can you recommend a good source for this?

A: You have asked the right person. I have experience with bottle walls. In fact the divider wall that I am looking at right now is just that. I made a trip to our local landfill and collected a great many wine bottles and also found some glass bricks. I used mortar mix as the binder and just started to lay out bottles and add the cement in between. I could only lay out about a foot high at a time because I used quite a bit of mortar between the bottles. I have seen other walls with a minimum of mortar and more bottles. I put together a documentary about The City of the Sun (available thru Dirt Cheap Books) that shows quite a few different bottle walls and homes. The larger the project, the more support you will want to have. Building a removable form from recycled tires or wood works great. Another innovative method is to mound up soil and build a bottle dome in the same manner as a wall and then excavate the dirt for a underground hidey hole.

Q: I am designing a wall made out of half gallon wine bottles connected at the necks. These bottles will be placed in an existing barn. I would like to separate these bottles by using 3/4 inch polystyrene foam and some type of caulk type chinking, ie. Permachink, as the binder instead of mortar. What would be the best thing to use for a binding agent to hold them together? Can I insulate around the bottles, with sawdust, without connecting the necks with printers plate or even sheet metal?

A: I have seen so many different ways of working with bottles that offering any advice would make me look stupid. It is all an experiment. You are only limited by your imagination and knowledge of what binding materials can or cannot do. I have been planning a water filled bottle wall for a while now. I think sealing the bottles with wax might work the best but then again maybe corks. I won't know until I try. I will say from my experience that working with bottles vertically is much more challenging. Alignment and balance seem to be the key issues. Patience plays a big role also. Let us know how your project turns out and we will add your information to our growing body of knowledge.

Q: I have recently purchased a 1909 home with a redone foundation (1990). I'm wondering about using bottles as an insulating and soundproofing material against the cider-block foundation. The home is in Minnesota, and cold-weather/hot humid summer insulation is key. We also have a music studio in the basement and for the sake of roommates and neighbors it needs to be well soundproofed. I'm also hoping to use up some of the bottles that are piling up in my garage. So, I guess the question is how do bottles fair as an "add-on" to a home. Could I somehow mortar them to the existing block wall? Do I leave it exposed to produce a colorful glass "brick" effect? Or is it just a bad idea...

A: I am not sure what kind of sound barrier bottles make but they sure look great and are fairly straight forward to work with. Masons Mix Mortar works just fine to hold them together. I would advise attaching metal tabs to the cinder block at regular intervals just like masons do for attaching rock to cinder block. A good book on masonry basics will show you what I am talking about or a trip to your local contractors store with helpful employees works well. One idea I have toyed with is to fill the bottles with sand and seal with wax for extra thermal mass for heat retention may be incorporated.

Q: After bouncing a number of ideas about the skirting (I made a 2' crawl space), I decided the best thing would be to enclose it. I have been fascinated by glass (a glass artist for 20+ years), and specifically intrigued by a reproduction of a building from the desert which I saw at the CA state fair exposition a few years back. So, I thought, since I have all these posts coming up from and out of the ground all around the outer edge of the building (the farthest ones apart are 6', and most are closer), how about if, after putting down a level bedding of rock, I lay wine bottles in between the posts, wiring them into place, and to each other. It would insulate, the crawl space would receive light (cool for repair jobs), and it would be cheap, as I could get the bottles from the local restaurants. So, my question to you is this-would it be best to a)leave them empty (I thought not); b)fill them 2/3 with water(it doesn't freeze often here, but it can happen); or c) fill them with dirt (which would kill the whole light thing, but that'd be ok)?

A: (Kelly) People have used bottles in walls in lots of different ways. I've seen them embedded in papercrete, cob, concrete, etc. I suggest that you mortar them in place with one of these materials, rather than wiring them into place. That way you get a solid wall that will keep out rodents, insects, etc. Place the bottom of the bottle to the outside and the neck inside. You don't need to fill them with anything since they are plenty strong to work as infill, and they will allow more light to enter that way.

Q: Thank you for your reply. Good suggestion re the mortaring of the bottles. The reason I was thinking I should fill them was not so much for strength, but for insulation. I think, empty they will not insulate well. From that standpoint, what would you recommend?

A: (Kelly) Actually trapped air is extremely good insulation, certainly better than water or soil that you might put in the bottles. You might put corks in the bottles to further isolate the air.

Q: Do you know of any body who has constructed glass bottle walls of at least 20"? I would love to know of them. Essentially monolithic walls with incorporated bottles laid in all the known mortar types: earth mixes, sand, cement and so forth.

A: (Kelly) I have not seen any solid bottle walls like you describe, but I did notice that there is one pictured in the new book called HOMEWORK, by Lloyd Kahn, where an older couple built a small cabin in Nevada that way. Otherwise I have seen bottles worked into walls as decoration mainly in many different ways. Rob and Jaki Roy, the cordwood advocates, have used bottles amongst the cordwood, sometimes placing them with their necks facing each other and jammed into a can cylinder, and then cemented into the wall along with the cordwood.

A: I am the executive director for SOL International Foundation, a non profit organization doing work in the Bay Islands of Honduras. At a meeting yesterday there was a woman who is collecting bottles to build houses with. I thought this was a great idea. We are currently seeking land to build a multi-building community center. We had already considered implementing green aspects and are interested in some more options. Roatan, the island we are working on, is developing at a rapid pace. They need other options for building and we could be a model for that new way.

A (Kelly): Using recycled bottles is a nice way to bring light into a building, and I have seen some fine examples of this with cordwood, and earthbag buildings. The best green approach usually incorporates whatever local materials are readily available. I have shown how a simple earthbag dome can be constructed here, but there are many other possibilities.

Q: I have used old plastic bottles to connect like-sized jars. Soda bottles cut into sleeves are like cheap heat shrink sleeves. If you wrap the bottles in aluminum foil and then heat shrink the plastic over a bottle sticking into a jar you get an air tight seal. So why can't you make a rubble wall with glass bottles?

A: It might make a great experiment. The factor to take into consideration would be weight. How much weight could the glass rubble wall handle before breaking up? If the wall was designed to spread the weight across a broad surface area it might work.

Q: I live and work in Brazil and, as in many other places around the world, the need for affordable housing is imperative. I came across a site in Honduras call Eco Tech, run by a guy by the name of Andreas Froese. He is making houses and structures out of 1 and 3 liter plastic coke bottles. After studying his method on the site, I realized its still very antiquated and inefficient to produce even cheap houses for the poor. I have been building with styrofoam (which I don't like) but with the cost of crude skyrocketing, its no longer a viable material.

What is the is reason for companies not using the PET bottles in say panel type construction and then covering with a structural plaster that would coat the bottles thus reducing any fire hazard or environmental pollution? God know we have a million bottles in any given dump that could be used. I know in these poor countries, codes are non existent. I see a lot of glass houses but not very many structures using plastic soda bottles. Is it prohibited? or what is the reason why more green guys haven't availed themselves of this method?

A: Most of the reasons any builder prefers traditional building methods is money and ease of repetition. For those of us that prefer to pioneer into untraditional modes of building there will always be the experimental side of things that demand risk and constant reevaluation.

I have seen plastic bottles used in various ways for building. Not much will be found on the net as the folks that utilize these materials may not be connected or are still experimenting. Commonsense says that any container that can be used to trap air can be used for insulation. It is easy to point fingers and ask why but a lot harder to just get on with your ideas and prove to yourself and others it can work. Let us know how things turn out.

Q: I never knew about glass bottle walls. Would you assist me in getting started to build a partition wall? Can glass bottles be used for thermal insulation?

A: Yes, bottle walls are beautiful. Most are built using bricklayers mortar that can be purchased in 50# bags. Just start with a layer of mortar then lay in the bottles and then more mortar on top. Be careful not to over do it as too many bottles at once tends to get a bit iffy. Let it dry overnight then go for it again. There are other bonding agents from silicon to cob and adobe that can be used. There are no hard and fast rules. Use your judgment and experiment.