Recycled Bottles, Reclaimed Lives: A Shelter Innovation from South Sudan
By IOM South Sudan | World Environment Day 2025
“This opportunity will change lives,” says Gatluak, a South Sudanese father whose new home in Bentiu Town is currently being built from discarded plastic bottles.
After years of displacement, he sees this move not just as a return home, but as a new beginning — one built with his own hands and with materials once seen as waste.
“People used to throw these bottles along the roads,” he says. “Now, they’re part of our homes — they’re cooler, stronger, and resistant to termites.”
In South Sudan, where communities face the twin crises of displacement and environmental strain, a powerful question is emerging:
What if plastic waste, once seen only as trash, could help build a safer, more sustainable future?
This year’s World Environment Day calls on us to #BeatPlasticPollution. In Bentiu, a town in South Sudan scarred by years of conflict and flooding, displaced communities are answering that call by turning trash into shelter.
A Crisis of Shelter — and of Sustainability
Bentiu is home to one of the largest displacement camps in South Sudan, where over 130,000 people live in temporary shelters that are often fragile, overcrowded, and vulnerable to extreme weather. While traditional shelters rely on tarpaulin and wooden poles, even more permanent housing solutions typically require large quantities of timber — placing additional pressure on already strained forest resources.
In an effort to reduce deforestation and promote waste reuse, communities are now experimenting with an alternative: using discarded plastic bottles as filler materials within more durable shelter designs. This innovation doesn’t eliminate the need for wood entirely, but it significantly reduces it while giving new life to plastic waste that would otherwise clutter the environment.
The Innovation: Bottle Bricks and Community-Led Solutions
In collaboration with engineers from the International Organization for Migration (IOM), community members in Bentiu have piloted a low-cost, environmentally sustainable shelter design using discarded plastic bottles. Combined with locally sourced materials such as bamboo, elephant grass, and compacted earth, the shelters are designed to resist the seasonal floods that regularly affect Rubkona County. Elevated stilt or mound foundations protect from water damage, while roofs made of locally sourced grass thatch shield the walls from rain. The result is a flood-resilient, climate-adapted home that’s both affordable and environmentally conscious.
A closer look at the approach:
· Thousands of discarded plastic bottles are filled with sand or soil and tightly packed.
· These “bottle bricks” are layered and secured with mud or clay, forming sturdy, insulated walls.
· Minimal timber is needed, replacing costly imported materials with what is already on the ground.
· The shelters stay cooler during Bentiu’s scorching summers and better withstand heavy rains compared to many conventional temporary structures.
· Designed with a modular, incremental approach, each home starts with a core structure that families can expand over time, allowing for affordable growth that adapts to changing needs.
· The housing models provided are not one-size-fits-all. Drawing from local materials and community knowledge, households receive conditional cash for housing construction, allowing them to choose between gabled and hipped roof structures using wattle and daub, bamboo, papyrus, or plastic bottle walls. Each option is cost-effective, flood-resilient, and adapted to local environmental conditions.
· A key part of the initiative is investing in people — local residents receive hands-on training from IOM in using sustainable materials like plastic bottles and papyrus mats to build durable, disaster-resilient homes.
Gatluak is confident that this construction method will gain traction in Bentiu, transforming local building practices and improving lives. In the nearby oil fields where thousands of daily wage workers are employed, the widespread scattering of plastic bottles presents both a visible challenge and a practical opportunity — offering a readily available, local resource for building resilient homes.
From Camp to Community: A Human Story
Gatluak and his children lived in the Bentiu displacement site for over five years. His previous shelter, like many others, was made of tarpaulin and sticks — leaky during rains, sweltering under the sun, and easily damaged by wind or animals.
However, the decision to move out of the site was not taken lightly. Like thousands of others, he had sought refuge there out of necessity, not choice — driven by years of insecurity and loss. When the opportunity arose to join a pilot relocation programme supported by IOM, Gatluak saw a path forward — one that would allow him to leave the overcrowded camp and return to his area of origin. It offered the possibility of stability and a better future for his children.
Gatluak is among the first to build a permanent home in Bentiu’s new settlement — one designed with climate-conscious features like raised foundations to reduce flooding and walls made from recycled plastic bottles.
Despite challenges such as rising material costs and flood-related shortages, he remains optimistic and emphasizes the value of local materials over imported ones:
“Compared to the plastic sheets we had in the camp, local materials last longer and feel more like home.”
A Pilot for the Future: Relocation with Sustainability at Its Core
Gatluak is one of 20 families participating in IOM’s pilot relocation programme in Bentiu. The initiative moves families from displacement sites into permanent, community-integrated settlements using eco-conscious shelter designs like bottle-brick homes.
Eligibility hinges on voluntariness, land ownership verification, and readiness to leave the camp. Upon verification, each household begins a clearly mapped journey: from initial cash disbursement to foundation laying, and on to roofing, sanitation, water filter training, and eventual livelihood engagement. Through complementary cash-for-work initiatives, participants can also earn income by planting vegetation around their new homes, contributing to greener, more resilient communities.
Each step is supported by trained IOM staff and technical experts who closely monitor progress and offer on-site guidance to every household.
The pilot is not just about relocation; it’s about testing scalable, community-led, and climate-smart solutions that can be used across humanitarian settings in South Sudan and beyond.
“This project proves that innovation doesn’t always come from the top down,” says IOM Shelter and Settlement Programme Coordinator Jue Gao. “The most effective solutions often come from those who are directly affected — and deeply motivated to change their own circumstances.”
What the World Can Learn from Bentiu
Plastic pollution is a global crisis, but solutions are often local.
From displaced camp resident to homeowner building with discarded plastic — Gatluak’s journey embodies this shift. Empowering displaced communities to transform waste into walls not only addresses urgent shelter needs and promotes sustainable materials but also fosters a strong sense of ownership and dignity.
This shelter model represents more than a physical structure. It signifies a fundamental change in approach — moving from temporary solutions to durable housing, and from viewing plastic as waste to recognizing it as a valuable resource. Most importantly, it marks a transition from displaced families being passive recipients of assistance to becoming active drivers of innovation and change in their own communities.
