V.O.W N°37  (19 - 25 September 2011)

No one really associates a plastic bottle with a lighting bulb. However, Isang Litrong Liwanag, or a liter of light is a groundbreaking sustainable lighting project, which transforms people’s lives in the Philippines by turning plastic soda bottles into lighting bulbs.  This short proves that design innovation can be life changing.

The project, realized by the MyShelter Foundation, a non-profit organization founded by Illac Diaz, is aiming to light up a million homes in the Philippines by 2012. Isang Litrong Liwanag, conceived and developed by students from MIT University, uses plastic soda bottles filled with bleach and purified water to light up households that live in the dark. The filled bottles are simply inserted halfway into the roofs of the houses and are then sealed in order to prevent leaks. The soda bulbs are cheap and easy to install. Once fitted, the bottles allow solar light to come through and light up the houses.

This week's VOW shows how a common soda bottle is transformed into a 55-watt electric lamp altering the lives of unprivileged people who cannot access electricity outside of Manila, Philippines.