Education-Innovation

Recycled Bottles, Reclaimed Lives: A Shelter Innovation from South Sudan

by By IOM South Sudan 3/06/2025 Medium

“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.