Illac Diaz, a Filipino native, is using plastic bottles and social media to help light slums in the Philippines.
By filling discarded soft drink bottles with water, Diaz places them on the roofs of homes that allow the refracted light to brighten homes during the day instead of using electric bulbs. The project began in a small Manila slum but has spread throughout the Philippines and even all the way to Columbia, India, and Vanuatu.
He will give a presentation at COP17 in Durban to reveal how solar light bottles are helping electrify rural communities. More than 15,000 solar light bottles have been installed in slums around the Philippine capital this year, and the project was set to ramp up with another 10,000 to be put in homes during a mass day of volunteer action on Wednesday. Diaz said another 100,000 would be installed in the Philippines’ second biggest city, Cebu, in December, putting the project on track to meet or exceed its goals of helping one million people over 12 months.
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