Unfortunately I think that the frequency of stories like these happens because people incorrectly assume that plastic is cheap and plentiful. I learned this because of a paper about remarkable properties of an alumina-PMMA composite: when I investigated the material costs, I learned that PMMA (aka acrylic) was more than half of the price, even though it was only 20% of the composite by weight.
Plastic has always been a suitable building material. But it's expensive to produce in bulk. It just happens that a fraction of a gram of polyethylene can still make a useful grocery bag, which leads to there being a lot of small pieces of plastic scattered all over the world.
As a method of waste management, this could prove useful. But 500 metric tons of plastic bricks per year (the supply of waste from the article) will only build a few houses, and won't make a noticeable dent in the demand for building materials in Nairobi, a city of millions.
The most interesting variant of polymers in construction I've heard of is the use of fiberglass-reinforced polymer rods as rebar in reinforced concrete. This should be more corrosion-resistant than steel, allowing reinforced concrete structures to last longer. This allows you to use smaller amounts of plastic to make larger amounts of buildings.
Plastic has always been a suitable building material. But it's expensive to produce in bulk. It just happens that a fraction of a gram of polyethylene can still make a useful grocery bag, which leads to there being a lot of small pieces of plastic scattered all over the world.
As a method of waste management, this could prove useful. But 500 metric tons of plastic bricks per year (the supply of waste from the article) will only build a few houses, and won't make a noticeable dent in the demand for building materials in Nairobi, a city of millions.
The most interesting variant of polymers in construction I've heard of is the use of fiberglass-reinforced polymer rods as rebar in reinforced concrete. This should be more corrosion-resistant than steel, allowing reinforced concrete structures to last longer. This allows you to use smaller amounts of plastic to make larger amounts of buildings.