by Courtney
Sustainable Merton Community Champion
What is an Eco-brick?
An eco-brick is a plastic bottle packed with shredded, single-use, non-recyclable plastics, compressed to a required density to create a reusable building block. They are a sustainable way to reuse non-biodegradable plastic waste as they are regarded as a long-lasting and durable material.
Eco-bricks = a low energy solution to keeping plastic out of the ecosystem!
What is the purpose of an eco-brick?
Making an eco-brick can be a tedious and time-consuming project (but great to do whilst watching TV!) and the purpose of it is to make you responsible for your own plastic waste and encourage you to reduce your own consumption.
The aim is to help you cut down on what you’re buying and ultimately produce less waste whilst creating something beneficial for yourself or the community!
What goes into the eco-brick?
The most important thing about an eco-brick is that the contents are CLEAN and DRY before they get stuffed. The reason for this is to prevent any bacteria or mould forming inside, which will undo all your hard work as they will not be validated!
You can put inside an eco-brick:
Crisp, biscuit, cake packets etc.
Stretchy plastic e.g carrier bags, bread bags, clingfilm etc.
Pasta/rice packets
Packaging – bubble wrap/plastic envelopes
Styrofoam/polystyrene
Hard plastic – meat trays, flowerpots etc (however, hard plastics will need to be cut up into much smaller pieces than soft plastic to allow you to reach the weight requirements)
What can I make with an eco-brick?
The most common personal projects are footstools! They can be as small or as large as you want, you can be creative with the bottle bottom colours to make a cool pattern or cover them in some fabric to make a decorative piece around the house!
There are other smaller projects you can make, like doorstops for example! I am personally taking inspiration from this one found on Pinterest:
Or you can branch out and take them to a local drop-off site (link below) or start your own larger project like making a bench for the local park like the community for Bootham School, York:
Ok, so how do I make one?
It is very simple! The picture below shows you how in 5 simple steps. The key is to just keep stuffing until you can’t any more! With time and patience, your brick will come to life.
Weight requirements:
It is very important for your eco-brick to meet the weight requirement but each size bottle. The weight should be about 0.3g/ml (Divide the ml of your bottle by 3 = target weight!).
Getting your eco-brick validated:
Before sending off your eco-brick to another project or start putting together your own, the weight and look of your eco-brick will need to be validated by other eco-brickers!
The steps are simple and easy, once you have your GoBrik account, you can put in the details of your brick (weight, bottle size/brand etc) and attach a photo, then just wait! Once your brick has been validated, you can be sure it is all ready for its new life!
What if I don’t want to create my own project?
Click here to see any local projects, the website has a colour coded key showing:
Orange = We’re fine on our own
Green = We are accepting eco-bricks
Pink = we are sharing our eco-bricks.
Useful Links
For more how to: https://www.ecobricks.org/how/
The GoBrik website: https://www.gobrik.com/
Facebook group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/ecobricksUK
To log your eco-bricks: https://www.gobrik.com/#log/
Download Courtney's How-To Guide: