Eco Bricks -Taking Upcycling to another level

Eco Bricks

Are they the key to the world's plastic pollution problem? Or at least a helpful factor if they became a permanent solution with no disadvantages? But what are they anyway? How are they useful? And how can individuals help every day? Here are some tips for everyone wanting to save plastic and help the earth.

Eco bricks are plastic bottles, filled densely with hard and soft plastic that make a bottle so hard and sturdy that they could be used to build houses. Which in fact, they are.
To make an Eco-Brick, you need a clean and dry plastic bottle, a long stick and lots of plastic. All plastic must be clean and dry, so it should be washed and dried or hung up to dry before usage. Now the bottle can be filled with layers of soft and hard plastic alternately that is pushed down with the stick to fill every corner of the bottle. That is done until the Eco-Brick is entirely stuffed with plastic and hard as a brick.
The advantage of Eco-Bricks is quite straightforward. Lots of plastic is upcycled towards a very sustainable goal that is realistic and already happening in many places all over the world. They can be made anywhere and no special materials are needed. Except for the one we have so much, it has become a major problem we find ourselves facing. In that way, we reuse plastic and contribute to building sustainable houses. The advantage of Eco-Bricks in buildings is that they most obviously do not decompose, so they are a reliable source that is sure to hold for years. If they are made well, they are really hard and do not break which means that many houses can be built for the overpopulation of the planet.

If you want to make an Eco-Bricks yourself, no problem! All you have to do is collect plastic of all sorts and cut it up into small pieces. Once again, make sure all plastic is clean and dry since you don't want the remains of food or whatever is in there to start microbiological growth. The same goes for the bottles. It would be advisable to choose one specific size of bottle you want to make each time, since all bottles have to be the same size to build a house, for example. In layers use hard and soft plastic to fill the bottle and use a stick or so to "compress" the plastic, every now and then while applying alternate layers of hard and soft plastic. Once the entire bottle is full and hard as stone it can be dropped off at a station that collects Eco-Bricks and does all the good stuff with it. Most major cities have an Eco-Brick station, and some small villages and towns run their own station.
At the bottom of the page, I will attach a link to a website that goes through the entire process in every detail and also has a map that shows where they can be dropped off. I looked through it earlier and it really is good stuff. If you have any more questions on the topic, feel free to contact us anytime! Eco-Bricks are such an easy and productive way to be helpful to the environment, please make use of your knowledge! If you do not have the time to make them yourself, share the information! Every little act counts, never forget that. There will always be people saying that it is just you, just one in a million. But the truth is, if everyone thinks like that, we get nowhere.

MK💚

Sources:
https://ecobricks.org/

Image: This image is owned by Stijn Dijkstra on pexels.com.

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