This weekend I visited Monkayan NHS in Benguet Province, Philippines. Led by my friend Deacon Helen, they had made several hundred ecobricks over the last few months. I gave a little talk about how important and wonderful their work is (instead of being dumped and burned they are putting their plastics to use in an indefinitely recyclable building block!) then we set to work. About 100 students helped out and in 3 hours we built this showcase circle bench from local clay, sand, and rice hay.
The net cost? About 15$
Best of all– the students totally loved being able to make their own bench and are now dreaming of what next they can build. They will craft more examples for their community of the cool stuff ecobricks can build– and all the plastic polluting in Monkayan will come to an end.
Deacon Helen’s dream is to get rid of Monkayan’s dumpsite (which threatens to contaminate their water source). We’re now one step closer!
For details on how to make Ecobricks, see Ecobricks.org!
