Ecobricks 101

Ecobricks have been around since the early 2000s. The first ecobricks were made in Guatamela. In 2013, the Ometepe Bilingual School, which was built from 1.5 liter bottles filled with inorganic waste, opened. The school educates children in Nicaragua, and aims to reduce plastic pollution in the biosphere. Nicaragua did not have a recycling facility, so it was a great way to keep Marida clean.

In 2017 ecobricks went viral, and gained traction all around the world. Ecobricks are not useful in countries with excellent recycling systems, like Australia.

Just a disclaimer before we get started, I do not think Ecobricking is going to save our planet. I am also not burying my ecobricks to leech into the garden. I think it’s a great way to reuse our plastic, instead of just sending it to the landfill. I advise you to do your own research before starting this DIY project.

What Are Ecobricks?

An ecobrick is a PET plastic bottle packed solid with clean and dry plastic wrappers, and films, harder plastics and styrofoam. When you fill the bottle so it’s packed solid, you can take these bottles and build structures with them, like benches, sheds, even houses. The Global Ecobrick Alliance {GEA} is a great resource for making and building with ecobricks, and they even have trainers that can come and teach groups how to make ecobricks.

Why Make Ecobricks?

Soft plastics recycling is not accessible everywhere, it’s just not. I haven’t found anyone whose recycling companies actually accept it curbside, so it all ends up in the trash. There are some really great companies popping up that are taking these plastics and recycling them, and I think it’s a great solution and hope one day they can expand to other states.

My end goal would be to reduce the amount of plastic that is produced, and have excellent recycling systems in place, but it’s a work in progress.

Steps To Make An Ecobrick

First you need a bottle. Pick a bottle that is commonly available to you that you already purchase. Once you pick a bottle you’ll want to stick with it, for building you need bottles that are the same shape and size.

I am human and am not totally plastic free so we buy a bottle of iced coffee every few weeks. I’ve cut myself down from a bottle a week to every few weeks so I’d say that’s a win. But we use Starbuck’s bottles. They take us about four months to fill each one, and they’re a good size for how I want to build with them. The GEA recommends for your first brick to start with a smaller bottle as you’re learning.

Ecobricks are made with clean and dry plastic. Wet plastic will encourage things to grow inside and you don’t want that. So if there’s food residue on it, wet a cloth and wipe it off, and then let it dry completely. you don’t want it wet at all.

Now, if you’re using your bottles yourself, you can cap them and store them on their sides, mine are in my garage on a shelf in a box. If you plan on donating them, you need to cap and log them on GoBrik.

What Can I Do With Ecobricks?

You should build with them.

I’m going to send you to ecobricks.org, once again the global ecobrick alliance is an excellent resource with practical ecobrick building, there’s different modules you can make, and like they say the only limit is our imagination.

My plan is to make a raised flower garden or a tree edging. I’m going to do this by hopefully just using cob or cement, something like cob the bricks could be used again in 15, 20 years when the structure breaks down, but cement can be a little harder to remove them undamaged, so cement shouldn’t totally encase the ecobricks, but there are other methods to make sure the bricks are usable again and again.

There was a lot of confusion when I said I was making a garden bed, so let me set the record straight, I am not burying my plastic ecobricks, they will not be touching soil that grows my vegetables.

You can also find a local project near you to donate them to, but be sure to look before you make them because they may have certain bottle specifications they need.

I also am a firm believer that even if you ecobrick, and have no use to build with them yourself or have a project to donate to, they are still beneficial in the trash. BUT in that case if you have recycling, pick a bottle that can’t be recycled. For example, we drink one of these arizona teas every few months, it’s not recyclable curbside for us, its #5. My partner fills it with his 3D printing leftover pieces, which also can’t really be recycled or ecobricked, so it ends up in the trash, But, we know then all the little bits of microplastics are actually in the trash, trapped in this bottle.

Impact of Ecobricking

Ecobricking is not going to save the planet. Like i said before, I do not think ecobricking is a solution to save the planet and reverse climate change. It’s just a way as an individual that I can control the impact I have on plastic pollution. This does not mean we can sit back and make ecobricks for the rest of our lives. This means we need to push for change, everything comes in plastic. There’s a time and a place for it, certain foods, medical supplies, things that need to be kept air tight for whatever reason, I dont forsee a future where plastic is totally wiped out, but we need to advocate for better change. There’s so much research about how plastic impacts humans, and we need to start caring about it. Ecobricking also just secures plastic from poisoning the biosphere. So many things in this world are packaged in plastic, and so little of it actually get recycled.

I personally believe that we need to reduce what comes in plastic first and set up the proper infrastructure to be able to have accessible soft plastics recycling.

Ecobricking is a drop in the bucket when it comes to saving the planet, but if anything it should just empower you more to want to make change in your own lives, and advocate for change.

Q&A

I went through frequently asked questions and statements on my shorts and other ecobricking videos and wanted to address them.

Ecobricking will make you buy more plastic to add to a bottle – No, I do not buy more plastic just to be able to brick it. That defeats the purpose. My goal is to always be reducing my plastic intake.

Ecobricks are going to leech plastic when you bury them – After going through my uses section I hope this got cleared up because everyone thinks I’m going to bury my ecobricks, that is absolutely not the case.

Isn’t it better to recycle the plastic? – YES. At least I think so. But unfortunately, not everywhere recycles plastic. You may have a great recycling system in your city, but in the United States, that’s not common.