Ecobrick

I try to pay attention to my carbon footprint and lately I've been working on reducing the amount of trash that goes to the curb each week. Plastic has been a particular problem. My city's single stream curbside recycling program collects the plastic bottles and containers but there are so many other types of plastic that can't be recycled this way.

While I was researching what could be done to reduce or reuse the plastic that isn't allowed in the recycle bin, I came across the Ecobrick. Ecobricks are made from plastic bottles that have been stuffed (and I mean STUFFED) with waste plastic. These "bricks" are then used to build things like benches, tables, and buildings.

I've written before about how certain ideas or projects grab my imagination and won't let go. The Ecobrick is one of those and I had to make one. It took three attempts to get it right.

My waste plastic - it's just too much

Try #1: Single serving water and soda bottles are most commonly used for making Ecobricks, however, I stopped buying those a long time ago, so I started by stuffing plastic into a Costco sized 2.83L juice bottle (bigger is better, right?) but this bottle was too large and difficult to pack.

Try #2: Next I tried a 1.7L juice bottle. I stuffed waste plastic into the bottle, I stuffed more plastic and I stuffed even more plastic but when I was done the bottle did not meet the weight requirements. A properly made Ecobrick will have a minimum density of .33g/ml so my bottle should have weighed at least 584g (651g if I included the weight of the bottle and cap) and it was more than 100g short of that.

Try #3: For this attempt I knew I needed to improve my plastic packing technique. I cut any plastic that wasn't soft and pliable into small pieces. I also used two different kinds of sticks. One stick was a 1/2" wood dowel and worked really well to push plastic down the sides of the bottle. The other stick was the wood handle from a broken toilet plunger (what a way to reduce, reuse, recycle!) and this worked perfect for pushing plastic into the middle of the bottle. Success! The total weight for the bottle was 667g and it is a solid plastic brick.

My packing sticks

Will assembling Ecobricks make a real ecological difference? I don't know but it has certainly opened my eyes for the need to do better about managing the amount of plastic in our lives. I still put all the plastic I'm allowed into my curbside bin and some of the plastic I used in the Ecobrick could be recycled by taking it to a plastic bag and film drop off location but an astonishing amount of plastic can't go to either location and there is also this additional dilemma detailed by the New York Times - Your Recycling Gets Recycled, Right? Maybe, or Maybe Not

What will I build with the Ecobricks? Again, I don't know. For now, I'll keep making Ecobricks and hope a project idea develops. Making Ecobricks can't hurt and in the meantime my hands and upper arms get a regular workout.