For the past month or so, I’ve been bricking it. In Bristol.
Thanks to Bricking It
Bristol. They’ve brought the global ecobrick movement to Bristol and seem
to have turned most people I know into brick makers. What’s it all about? Well,
basically the idea is to do something more empowering and productive with our
plastic waste which would otherwise go to landfill, pollute our rivers or end
up in the stomachs of seagulls, turtles and other creatures (including
ourselves).
You take a plastic bottle, stuff it tightly with clean and dry used plastic, and hey presto – ecobrick. You can create benches, tables, chairs or cob walls, or even build them into your exercise routine! And if you don’t have a use for them yourself, and if you’re lucky enough to live in a city with drop-off points, you can drop off your beauties and effectively donate them to all sorts of community projects.
Of course, this isn’t the solution to our plastic woes. We ultimately need to radically change our approach to plastic packaging (and most other resource-guzzling, all-round-polluting, convenience-enabling things… but that’s another post for another day). While we get there, I reckon we could do worse than making a few ecobricks. I’ve made three so far. And even if I don’t end up using them to build anything myself, the one thing it has done is make me visually confront my plastic waste. I really do think twice now before reaching for that packaged item on the shelf.
You take a plastic bottle, stuff it tightly with clean and dry used plastic, and hey presto – ecobrick. You can create benches, tables, chairs or cob walls, or even build them into your exercise routine! And if you don’t have a use for them yourself, and if you’re lucky enough to live in a city with drop-off points, you can drop off your beauties and effectively donate them to all sorts of community projects.
Of course, this isn’t the solution to our plastic woes. We ultimately need to radically change our approach to plastic packaging (and most other resource-guzzling, all-round-polluting, convenience-enabling things… but that’s another post for another day). While we get there, I reckon we could do worse than making a few ecobricks. I’ve made three so far. And even if I don’t end up using them to build anything myself, the one thing it has done is make me visually confront my plastic waste. I really do think twice now before reaching for that packaged item on the shelf.
Comments
Post a Comment