Stirling weighs in at world no 1 ecobrick heroes

AN EAST London primary school’s anti-plastic waste project has seen it collect more than 100kg of plastic in just a few months to help build a reading room for underprivileged children.

Stirling Primary School’s Bottles2Bricks project has seen the school produce well over 200 plastic-filled ecobricks, weighing between 300g and 500g a piece.

Anis a two-litre plastic bottle stuffed full of household plastic waste, such as plastic bags, chip packets and sweet wrappers.

When this waste is packed tightly in the bottle, it can be used as a “brick” from which even school buildings and houses can be built.

A Grade 7 teacher at the school who oversees the project, Wesley Renton, said the idea was spurred on by the eagerness of pupil Daniel Boucher, whose idea has made him a youth finalist in this year’s Inspiration Awards – an annual event that promotes individuals or groups making a difference in their communities.

Renton said that last term the school joined the GoBrik website, which allowsmakers from around the world to weigh and log their bricks, and the school is ranked No1 in the amount of total plastic packed at 119.5kg.

Renton said the pupils, from grades R to 7, had shown massive interest in the initiative, partly spurred on by the fact that handing in a fullwins a student five house points and the house with the most points gets to leave early at the end of term.

He said the bricks – which can take anywhere from three days to two weeks to fill, depending on the plastic waste available – go “to Jikani in Hogsback, which needs 10000 bricks to build a reading room for underprivileged children”.

Renton called on people to contribute ideas for what else could be done with the bricks.

Robyn Rohm, of Yellowwoods Forrest Backpackers in Morgan Bay, said that when it comes to building with ecobricks “the sky’s the limit”: it was possible to build anything from a bench, staircase or doghouse to a house, a school or even a cathedral.