ECO BLOCKS, ROOFS FROM
COCO FIBER, DIRTY PLASTIC
By Manny Piñol
Hollow blocks and roofings made out of Coconut Fibers and Coconut Shells bound by processed dirty plastic could soon hit the market as the first environment-friendly and ecologically-sensitive housing materials.
A partnership between ingenuous Filipino researchers and techno-savvy American mechanical engineers is expected produce roofs and hollow blocks which would be made out of Coconut Fiber, a material which is usually burned or used to produce Coco Coir, and dirty plastic which pollute the ocean, seas, lakes and rivers.
Researchers and scientists of the Philippine Coconut Authority, who have developed Eco-Blocks and Eco-Roofs, are now working with a small US engineering firm, Buskirk Engineering of Indiana, which designed a machine which processes dirty plastic, to establish a Pilot Facility to produce the innovative housing materials in commercial quantity.
American engineers James Wheeler and Kirk Johnson, who both own Buskirk Engineering, presented to the Philippine Department of Agriculture (DA) Secretary and USDA Undersecretary Ted McKinney the proto-type of the blocks they have designed.
They also presented the samples of the materials made out of Coconut Fiber and Dirty Plastic which they said could be formed into Hollow Blocks or roofing.
The blocks are designed like the Lego Blocks which the American engineers said would make the materials ideal for earthquake-prone areas because of these could withstand violent movements.
The American engineers, whose trip to the Philippines was sponsored by the Bureau of Agricultural Research, an agency under the Department of Agriculture, will also design equipment to hasten the processing of Coconut Husks into Coco Coir and Coco Peat and a scaled-down version of the Coconut Processing Plants which the government intends to provide to Coconut farmers in every region to enable them to process their coconut iinto high value products.
They were also asked to design community-level feed mills for backyard hog and poultry raisers and an equipment which would process banana stalks and water lilies into paper.
Since Filipino scientists and researchers have already made inroads in these areas, the American engineers will now only have to development machines and equipment to produce the high value items in commercial quantity.
(Photos of the presentation of the Coconut Eco-Blocks to the DA Secretary and USDA Undersecretary Ted McKinney were taken by Alan Jay Jacalan and Mayette Tudlas
More Stories
Kapehan With Pareng Gob
Mlang Pomelo Industry On PTV Channel 4 Today!
Bignay Wine, Vinegar Maker: Ito Dapat Bigyan Ng Ayuda!