Eco-Bricking: A smart girl’s guide to saving the planet

Schools like Syracuse University have been working tirelessly to stop the contamination and spread of the virus by serving meals wrapped in plastic with single-use cutlery with each meal. The increased plastic waste, however, will outlive the pandemic and everyone who used it. The types of plastic used to make cutlery and single-use items will take thousands of years to break down, releasing toxic chemicals into the environment as they disintegrate.

Eco-bricks are plastic containers packed with single use plastics until they are solid and extremely dense. They are a system of waste redirection, which are used to focus the transition of single use plastics away from landfills and into infrastructure products. These bottles are extremely dense and become strong. They can be used worldwide to create infrastructure, especially among communities where resources for building are scarce. They can be used to build houses, public works and farming infrastructure worldwide. If you are unable to use sustainable items, such as a tote bag, or a reusable straw, the eco-bottling program is a resource to still reduce the waste that is sometimes impossible to avoid.

Why should we care about the impact? We’re in a pandemic! Safety should be our priority first! Impact of single use plastics even before the pandemic was a concern. First world countries, which manufacture and use massive amounts of single use plastics continuously fail to take accountability for their plastics. The Eco brick solution helps focus the conversation of the environmental justice of waste. Data from the European Journal of Public Health shows that waste facilities are disproportionately more located in areas with deprived residents and ethnic minorities, including hazardous waste sites, landfills and incinerators. By creating Eco bricks, we can focus on equalizing ecological pollution protection by investing in communities worldwide. It is a necessary step in assuring access in the future.

As a college student, creating eco-bricks can be an extremely viable solution for students, even if they want to take out the trash less frequently. Simply take a bottle of any size, ranging form a plastic water bottle to a full size soda bottle. Each time you eat food with a wrapper, or take a container with plastic silverware, save the wrappings or plastic. Cut up the plastic into smaller pieces that can be easily shoved through the mouth of the container. Depending on the size of the container, it can take weeks to fill. Voila! Fewer trips to the garbage disposal, and no mess in your room after a busy day! Eco-bricking takes very little time, and can be done while watching your favorite show, or all at once to save time day to day.

Eco-bricking calls into the justice of our society. The Eco brick solution helps focus the conversation of the environmental justice of waste. Data from the European Journal of Public Health shows that waste facilities are disproportionately more located in areas with deprived residents and ethnic minorities, including hazardous waste sites, landfills and incinerators. By creating Eco bricks, we can focus on equalizing ecological pollution protection by investing in communities worldwide. It is a necessary step in assuring access in the future.

​Once you have created your eco-brick how do you get it to a facility for repurposing? These are just a few of the centers located in the North East. You can look up facilities close to you, or can save the bottles for when you return home! Some colleges have even begun setting up eco-brick recycling programs in their local communities to facilitate donation.

Wherever you live and whoever you are, eco-bricking is a solution for you to make less of an impact on the world around you. Protecting your planet helps ensure that you have a future home to live in that is as beautiful as it is now. Whether it prevents you from carrying waste to the trash room, or leaves you a clean room at the end of the night, you can make a difference in the world around you.

Source: Ecobricks.org, Locations of Brick recycling in the Northeast

There are many avenues to create eco-brick recycling programs at your university! To learn some of the framework, check out this project I made to receive funding through the Victoria Secret Pink Program Competition in 2021!