Plastic is So So So So Dangerous, Polluting, and Wasteful

95% of plastic is used once and discarded. It consumes fossil fuel, accumulates and pollutes oceans and open spaces, and is a drain on the economy. We need to find better ways of managing the wonderful material.

Here is a report on the subject, with recommendations.

Bottle Brick Building Project at Plymouth Meeting Friends

Ecoladrillos, bottle bricks, are a Global South invention that solves numerous problems: a lack of recycling and waste management and a dearth of affordable building materials. Tool 74 in the book, I decided this would be a great way to bring this great idea from lower resource countries to my local community.

Bottle bricks dubbed “portable landfills”, and indeed they create a way to collect and upcycle all kinds of inorganic waste. While we do have recycling around here, there are dozens and dozens of items that cannot be recycled and wind up in the trash, and then in landfills.

Plymouth Meeting Friends School’s 5th grade teacher, Leann Stover Nyce, is heading up a project with her students with Amanda Davis. Their students are fabricating bottle bricks, in class, and also acceptingdonations. They will be building a gaga court and perhaps a raised bed with a bench this spring. Reports Stover Nyce:

“They are having a blast.  Really and truly.  Amanda is also the Lower School science teacher so she brought in her scale and they love weighing each brick.  One student brought in batteries to try to make them heavier.  It also acts as a ‘fidget.’  They can work on it while doing other things.  It is so fun.”

How to Make Bottle Bricks