--- --- # Building Affordable Homes Out of Plastic Waste ## Video: Building Affordable Homes Out of Plastic Waste [Watch (HLS stream): Building Affordable Homes Out of Plastic Waste](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/ZPma3wW2.m3u8) (4:24)  _Published 2024-03-21. With a growing population of over 120 million inhabitants, Ethiopia sees an estimated total consumption of plastic waste of around 400 million kilos every year. Kubik is a start-up based in Africa that makes building materials out of recycled plastic for affordable housing projects while reducing their carbon and plastic footprint._ Mar 25, 2024 11:00 AM UTC by [Lisa Nho](https://time.com/author/lisa-nho/) ## Lisa Nho Mar 25, 2024 11:00 AM UTC With a growing population of over 120 million inhabitants, Ethiopia sees an estimated total consumption of plastic waste of around 400 million kilos every year. Kubik is a start-up based in Africa that makes building materials out of recycled plastic for affordable housing projects while reducing their carbon and plastic footprint. This Company Builds Housing Materials Out of Plastic Waste ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/6959259/affordable-homes-plastic-waste-kubik/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/6959259/affordable-homes-plastic-waste-kubik/"},"headline":"Building Affordable Homes Out of Plastic Waste","datePublished":"2024-03-25T11:00:00.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T08:53:17.288Z","description":"African start-up Kubik makes building materials out of hard-to-recycle plastic for affordable housing projects.","url":"https://time.com/6959259/affordable-homes-plastic-waste-kubik/","keywords":["climate","Tech","climate change","Sustainability","sponsorshipblock","FuturesDeloitte","Futures","2030 Sustainability","Futures Innovative"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt02e3eb43ff36f6c2/698a55809d83e822f3b99f37/3_THUMBNAIL.00_00_00_22.Still002.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Lisa Nho","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/lisa-nho/"}],"articleSection":"Climate","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt02e3eb43ff36f6c2/698a55809d83e822f3b99f37/3_THUMBNAIL.00_00_00_22.Still002.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"3_THUMBNAIL.00_00_00_22.Still002","caption":"","creditText":"","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/climate/","name":"Climate"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/climate/","name":"climate"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/6959259/affordable-homes-plastic-waste-kubik/","name":"Building Affordable Homes Out of Plastic Waste"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"Building Affordable Homes Out of Plastic Waste","description":"With a growing population of over 120 million inhabitants, Ethiopia sees an estimated total consumption of plastic waste of around 400 million kilos every year. Kubik is a start-up based in Africa that makes building materials out of recycled plastic for affordable housing projects while reducing their carbon and plastic footprint.","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/ZPma3wW2/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2024-03-21T18:13:24.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/ZPma3wW2.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/6959259/affordable-homes-plastic-waste-kubik/","duration":"PT4M24S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/6959259/affordable-homes-plastic-waste-kubik/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```