I am not sure how many of you participated in Earth Day this year, or if you were even aware that there is such a day! If you are new to the cause, allow me to enlighten you. Every year, usually on the 22nd of April, communities, schools, businesses, families and individuals rally forces and partake in projects that will help to protect the earth from the pit of decay and destruction that it currently finds itself in. Around this time, campaigns go all out to raise awareness of how we are harming the world and they offer solutions to how we can work together to make it a better place.
Some of you might recall that I wrote a post of my Earth Day shenanigans this year. My hubby, kiddo and I spent some family time together doing a few earth-friendly things, like: building a worm farm, picking up litter, planting an Avocado tree and starting an Ecobrick project. Today I would like to update you on our Ecobrick project and an idea we have in mind of what we would like to do with our bricks!
If you don’t have a cooking clue what an Ecobrick is, here’s a quick catch-up:
An Eco Brick is a plastic bottle than has been filled with solid non-biological waste (plastic) that has been pressed and packed so tightly, that it adds substantial weight to the bottle and makes it almost as solid as a brick. These ‘bricks” are then used to build all sorts of things from furniture to even homes and schools! These re-usable building blocks are an excellent way to utilise the plastic we have floating around the world.
And this is what they look like:
Can you believe it that we have packed two months’ worth of plastic into these two coke bottles! While it might not seem like much, it really is a huge amount of plastic waste for our family of three! Our bottles are packed extremely tightly and you will be super surprised if you had to release the plastic and see just how much is released. At the moment our one bottle weighs 1.1 kgs and the other one weighs a whopping 1.9 kgs (thanks to my muscle man of a hubby who is an expert plastic squeezer). The aim is to get your bottle as full of plastic as possible. You want it to weigh as much as possible and be quite sturdy. The heavier your brick, the better!
So, what do you do with your Ecobrick once done?
Well, anything really! You can use these bricks for your own projects (there are so many cool ideas on the internet), or, you can look for a community project to donate them towards. I stumbled on to a site called ecobricks.org , here you can search for current projects that are requesting Ecobrick donations. There is also an AMAZING app that you can sign up to, where you get to log your bricks and see where they travel to. The app also gives you info on who else in your community is building bricks, and what they are doing with them.
While I initially started my bricks with the idea of donating them to a project that’s running in a neighbouring town, I have now decided to support my friend with her project. She has decided to use Ecobricks to build a hobbit hut in her yard, a fun little novelty nook for entertaining! While we haven’t thought out the logistics quite to the tee, we have a good idea of how we will build the hut with our Ecobricks, which will then be covered with soil and grass.
Ecobricks can be connected using tire bands, silicone, cob, and cement. Ecobricks can be used to build furniture, gardens, structures and more.
Here’s an idea of what we have in mind:
Our problem at the moment is that we just don’t have enough Ecobricks to get the project started! So if you happen to live and South African and wanna get packing, send some plastic brick our way please?
Did you know?
When plastic is “recycled”, it re-enters a globally distributed industrial system that consumes large amounts of energy and relies on humans working in toxic conditions. In addition, all plastics that enter this system eventually find their way out, and into the biosphere. - https://www.ecobricks.org/
This outrageously cool way of recycling plastic has so many benefits. Communities around the world are packing and collecting Ecobricks to not only build furniture, parks and walls, but people are actually using them to build actual homes and schools too! WOW, right?
Ecobricks equip people to take a proactive stance and take plastic out of the industrial recycling system, which in turn keeps it out of the biosphere and saves energy. It also delays the leaching process, keeping soil free from petrochemicals.
Ecobrick building is a great opportunity to get your family, friends and students involved in caring for the environment. It’s easy to do (so much fun to do actually), and let’s face it, we ALL have packets full of plastic that we need to dispose of on a daily basis. Why not point your energy towards green living and get packing?
Much love - @sweetpea
