
Heineken WOBO: A Beer Bottle That Doubles as a Brick - evo_9
https://inhabitat.com/heineken-wobo-the-brick-that-holds-beer/
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markvdb
A large fraction of the one time use glass at least in Europe is recycled into
foam glass [0]. A wonderfully versatile and ecological insulation material
with slowly but surely increasing popularity.

There's factories in at least Belgium, Finland, Germany, Hungary, Lithuania,
Switzerland, Russia, Slovakia and Ukraine.

[0]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foam_glass](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foam_glass)

~~~
teruakohatu
Anyone know why it isn't more popular outside of Europe? seems like a perfect
use for recycled glass that is not suitable for glass bottles.

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vanderZwan
My guess would be that insulation wasn't taken that seriously until recently,
and construction probably isn't the most fast-moving industry out there.

It also has some extreme insulation properties: it doesn't look like it really
absorbs or lets through _any_ moisture or air. There might be cases where that
isn't ideal.

But living on the fourth floor of an old building with central heating in the
basement does make me wish all the pipes were insulated with that material
instead - it's absurd to have to wait many minutes for warm water to come out
of the tap or shower because so much heat is lost along the way.

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rini17
Even if it was insulated, you don't want warm water standing in pipes for a
long time. This is usually solved by adding a pipe from the farthest point
back to the boiler and circulation pump.

~~~
jfengel
Which also has the nice property that the water in the pipes is always warm.
You get a hot shower almost instantly.

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pieterk
So sad that this has to be a museum piece. The bottles could also double as
water storage and a heating system. Or be plastic yet filled with sand or
something.

Wonder how much more expensive these would be to manufacture. Making no waste
is priceless though.

~~~
darkerside
Many jurisdictions no longer recycle glass (considered too expensive), but
will collect for upcycling. Could this be the right time for a renaissance of
this type of design? It probably would require incentives from the government,
which imo are merely manifesting preexisting externalities.

~~~
bjelkeman-again
According to the European glass recycling organisation it uses 25% less energy
to recycle glass than using sand as raw material (as I read their claim). [1]

[1] [http://www.ferver.eu/en/node/31](http://www.ferver.eu/en/node/31)

~~~
hedora
There’s also an international sand shortage. It’s an ecological disaster.

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jojo14
From design point of view this is cool. However it is just a lame PR story.
First glass is one of the rare materials that is nearly 100% recyclable it
would be a shame to sore it as construction material. Second beer vendors way
prefer aluminum which is way toxic for the environment but also remarkably
recyclable. The best materials are those not produced furthermore those not
littered. Why Heineken just don't fund garbage collector in such areas ? Why
not an incentive when people return used bottles or others wastes ?

~~~
stevekemp
>Why not an incentive when people return used bottles or others wastes ?

Some countries do that. Notably Finland and Sweden. When you buy a can of
coke, or a glass bottle of beer, there is a small surcharge added to the
price. When you return the empty container you receive your money back.

People discard cans/bottles in parks, at bus-stops, and people make a living
collecting them and claiming the money back.

[https://www.sitra.fi/en/cases/deposit-based-recycling-
system...](https://www.sitra.fi/en/cases/deposit-based-recycling-system-
drinks-packaging/)

~~~
fishnchips
In Poland (perhaps all of the Soviet bloc?) it’s always been a thing. I
remember collecting them as a kid, competing against local drunks. It was hard
to find one back then. These days they’re too cheap for most people to care.

~~~
LeonidasXIV
Also, Poland has a huge share of bottles that are not returnable, which is
very different from Germany or the Nordics where all the bottles have deposit
on them, even plastic ones.

(Whether you are able to return them is a different question, because the
Danish system allows vendors to reject bottles that they aren't selling
themselves, which is something Germany was quick to outlaw)

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_Microft
A very popular reuse of an item in Germany is using the glass that a certain
brand of mustard comes in as drinking glasses. It even says, or at least used
to say, on the label that this is a popular thing. Most people I know have a
few of them.

[0]
[https://www.bing.com/images/search?q=senf%20tommy%20glas](https://www.bing.com/images/search?q=senf%20tommy%20glas)

~~~
flyingfences
There's a brand (French, I think) of Jam [0] that's widely available in stores
here in America; I've found that their jars make fine rocks glasses once the
jam is all used up.

[0]
[https://assets.bonappetit.com/photos/5981f6d764829819a9174b4...](https://assets.bonappetit.com/photos/5981f6d764829819a9174b46/16:9/w_2560%2Cc_limit/Bonne-
Maman-Lede.jpg)

~~~
undersuit
The majority of my drinking glass is mason jars I have recycled from my Adams
Peanut Butter purchases.

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pySSK
Great concept ahead of its time. However, I'd advise people who live in houses
made of WOBO against throwing stones.

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tomc1985
I visited some friends in South America and they had just bought a property
out in the countryside and were building a house. They had a shed for housing
their dog food (they rescued street animals) and, to my surprise, the inside
of the walls were built with stacked-up Jack Daniels bottles. They covered the
outside with wood paneling so it looked like a normal shack from the outside.
I have no idea where they got so many bottles (my friend had a whiskey habit
but this would have been _a lot_ of drinking), but apparently this is a common
thing to do over there

Articles like these pop up every now and then and I can't help but think of my
friend's dogfood shack.

(Oh, and the house was built by a proper construction crew, with wood beams
and all, not bottles...)

~~~
bacon_waffle
A friend built a log cabin in Kentucky with different coloured glass bottles
and jars interspersed in the chinking so that light comes through. Really neat
effect.

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HenryBemis
Any chance you can share a photo? It would be really interesting to see the
result on a "real" house.

I see some fine examples on duckduckgo search results, but they look too
extravagant:
[https://duckduckgo.com/?t=ffab&q=house+made+of+glass+bottles...](https://duckduckgo.com/?t=ffab&q=house+made+of+glass+bottles&iax=images&ia=images)

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yuchi
Mods, please add (2012) to the title. I remember when they published it at the
time :)

~~~
HenryBemis
Correct: 05/11/2012 under Architecture, Features, Green Building, Green
Materials, Innovation

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erikig
"Honey, I'm not a drunk - I'm just trying to build us a bigger house..."

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redsparrow
The Twelfth Apostle Church in Berlin has some windows made out of gin bottles.
After the second world war the church needed to replace some windows. The
Gilka liquor factory nearby donated gin bottles.

Exterior Photo: [https://media04.berliner-
woche.de/article/2018/01/30/8/8798_...](https://media04.berliner-
woche.de/article/2018/01/30/8/8798_XXL.jpg?1563576966)

Interior: [https://media04.berliner-
woche.de/article/2018/01/30/6/8786_...](https://media04.berliner-
woche.de/article/2018/01/30/6/8786_XXL.jpg?1563576966)

Article (in German): [https://www.berliner-
woche.de/schoeneberg/c-kultur/alfred-ko...](https://www.berliner-
woche.de/schoeneberg/c-kultur/alfred-kothes-katzen-in-den-fenstern-der-zwoelf-
apostel-kirche_a141839)

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koonsolo
There's an error in the title: It should read "A water bottle that..." ;).
Hahaha!

Context: As a Belgian we like to make fun of Heineken not being a 'real' beer,
because Belgian beers are way better. This is of course all relative because I
know some Belgians picked Heineken as their favorite beer in blind tests
(shame on them! ;)).

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zbrozek
Cloudflare strikes again.

Access denied based on my IP address. Thanks!

~~~
lstodd
Yup. Same for me. What is it with them?

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h2odragon
Fill them, sand or sawdust or something, and fragility might be less of an
issue? Even just for windows it's a lovely idea. I'd worry about the strength,
people living in glass houses would worry about shards.

~~~
verandaguy
Not to mention the evergreen concern of having stones thrown at their houses.

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reaperducer
As they say, "What once was old is new again."

Beer bottle houses weren't uncommon in the late 1800's and early 1900's in the
mining towns of the American deserts. There wasn't enough water to make
bricks, and wood was scarce and needed for other purposes.

But where there are men, there is beer. So beer bottles were used to build
homes. I've seen at least four, including one preserved by the State of Nevada
in a ghost town outside Beatty.

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pengaru
Relevant:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earthship](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earthship)

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FpUser
I remember in my school stairwell wall that faced the street was made out of
glass bricks. 4 storey high building btw.

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karmelapple
The Rhyolite ghost town near Death Valley National Park has a house entirely
made of glass bottles. They’re round ones though!

[https://www.roadarch.com/h/rhyolite.html](https://www.roadarch.com/h/rhyolite.html)

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itronitron
Instead of a message, you can include blueprints in the bottle.

