So far, we’ve had some fantastic project plans submitted from this year’s Green Impact teams. One of these is from the Student Administration Services, who are creating Ecobricks!
You may be familiar with how this works – the concept is simple, to make ‘bricks’ by filling plastic bottles with more plastic! When the bottles are stuffed full, they make a solid block which can mimic a brick and be used to build structures.
This year, the team is aiming to make furniture such as a table and chair set or a play den, for the local nursery associated with the University. This donation will be extremely valuable to them and will also help to educate the children on plastic waste.
As they are making furniture for little people, they are preferably looking to collect the usual 500ml bottles, however they will also welcome the bigger 2 litre bottles (as pictured below).
In addition to this, they are also collecting plastic waste to fill these bottles with. The following items give examples of what the team are looking for:
- Plastic bags
- Photo paper
- Food containers
- Straws
- Plastic cutlery
- Cling film
- Plastic fruit and vegetable packaging
All of these items are regular waste that would otherwise go in the bin. The ‘popular’ items are plastic bags you may still have lying around the house and fruit and veg packaging that is on almost every item in the supermarket!
The team want to make it clear that they do not want people going out buying these products with this project in mind, as it is much more important that we reduce the amount of plastic we are buying! However if you do come across any of these, please take them to the drop off point – Student Administration Services, Level 6 @ Students Union.
Despite the benefits that this project has, it is important to realise that the Ecobrick movement is not a solution to the plastic issue we are facing. As consumers, we need to continue to demand manufacturers and the government for change through our purchasing choices and also with our voices. It is simply not acceptable for companies to continue with business as usual, and we need to keep the pressure on for them to introduce an alternative to their current practices. It is their responsibility to manufacture sustainably and we therefore can’t view Ecobricks or other similar ideas as being a potential solution to this.