Is plastic the solution to housing crisis?
People who one day find themselves living in a plastic house may have school students to thank.
A group of Year 10-12 pupils at Alfriston College involved with the ‘‘SouthSci’’ initiative is investigating the use of waste materials as sustainable building resources.
They recently welcomed Science and Innovation Minister Steven Joyce to their school to hear about their ideas.
The students told Joyce they plan to build a greenhouse using plastic bottles to show what can be done with rubbish.
‘‘We want to help people in South Auckland and New Zealand,’’ they say. ’’We thought about the earthquakes in Christchurch and Auckland’s housing crisis.
‘‘Temporary homes can be made from waste and recycling materials.’’
The students plan to start constructing the greenhouse in October-November. It will sit on their outdoor volleyball court near the school’s reception.
They’ve collected 200 bottles and estimate they’ll need about 25,000 to build it.
The students say they want to show the community how recyclable materials can be used for temporary housing, which will also help the environment.
Joyce says the Government wants to inspire more school pupils to study science and engineering subjects.
‘‘You can’t do all this research and development without the right talent,’’ he says.
‘‘Science is the study of how things work and engineering is the study of how to make things.
‘‘The funny thing is that kids are born curious and when they grow up they lose a bit of that.’’
Joyce says it’s ‘‘semantics’’ to describe Auckland’s housing situation as a crisis, as the students did in their presentation to him.
‘‘We like to think we’re in the middle of the biggest building boom New Zealand has ever seen. The Opposition calls everything a crisis.’’
SouthSci is funded under the Government’s ‘‘Nation of Curious Minds’’ strategy and managed by COMET Auckland.
Project manager Dr Sarah Morgan says eight new science projects announced in South Auckland are ‘‘providing an excellent way to meet the aim of engaging local communities with science and technology’’.