#eco-brick

#Pugur – #Produksi Eco-brick (#Bata Plastik Daur Ulang): #Material Ramah Lingkungan – Masalah #sampah plastik telah menjadi isu global yang sulit diatasi. Setiap tahunnya, jutaan ton #plastik berakhir di laut maupun di tempat pembuangan akhir, mencemari lingkungan dan membahayakan ekosistem. Salah satu #solusi kreatif yang muncul adalah #Eco-brick, yaitu #bata ramah lingkungan yang terbuat dari…

#Pugur – #Produksi Eco-brick (#Bata Plastik Daur Ulang): #Material Ramah Lingkungan – Masalah #sampah plastik telah menjadi isu global yang sulit diatasi. Setiap tahunnya, jutaan ton #plastik berakhir di laut maupun di tempat pembuangan akhir, mencemari lingkungan dan membahayakan ekosistem. Salah satu #solusi kreatif yang muncul adalah #Eco-brick, yaitu #bata ramah lingkungan yang terbuat dari…

[ASIA] The startup helping rebuild Nepal, one eco-brick at a time [NEWS] Source link

By PR & Social Media Coordinator, Jo Jackson

Cape Town - Joburg

It’s day one of the Greenpop team’s epic road trip from Cape Town to Livingstone, Zambia for the Festival of Action. The dusty expanse of the Karoo seems endless. The only real sign that we’re making any headway through the desert are the undulating mountain ranges way off in the distance on either side of the road.

Wilson, the team driver, pulls the Sprinter van over and we all pour out onto the roadside to stretch our legs. Never ending strings of barbed wire run along the road. I walk up to the fence line and stand facing the flat lands. The distance blurs into a wash of grey, but the low-lying scrub and rock around my feet are all detail. There’s a flattened old can nearby. Its branding has been stripped off by rust. There’s broken glass glittering amongst the pebbles and old plastic bags caught in the thorn bushes.

Those driving through the desert might not remember much of it, but the Karoo never forgets them.

Joburg -  Francistown, Botswana

We leave Mufasa’s Backpackers and after some early morning roadside yoga we head out of Joburg. The desert has faded into the flat grasslands of Gauteng. The closer we get to Botswana, the more the plains morph into woodlands. The land is changing all around us, but the fluttering plastic bags, drainage ditches full of plastic bottles, and chip packets shining in the sun are a constant.

Francistown, Botswana – Livingstone, Zambia

At Kazangula, we drive the Sprinter onto a tiny ferry that chugs across the Zambezi River and carries us to Zambia. It takes some time to get clearance for our vehicles. While we wait, the Greenpop team perches along a wall and chats idly in the afternoon light. I walk to the water’s edge. A ferry carrying a juggernaut is halfway across the river. The bank is thick with reeds and men in a dug out canoe launch off into the Zambezi. There’s a man washing his clothes in shallows. The water has rainbows of engine oil on the surface and flotillas of plastic bottles and wrappers have gathered in the reeds.

When I think of the thousands of kilometres we’ve driven and how every single one was strewn with waste, I get an overwhelming sense of the scale of our problem. The only thing stopping me from lapsing into a dark mood is Candice. She’s our official zero-waste warrior for the Zambia Festival of Action. The minute we got into the Sprinter two days ago she briefed us on what to do with the non-recyclable waste we found ourselves producing on the ride up to Livingstone.

“Eco-brick it. Get an empty plastic bottle and stuff it full of chip packets, plastic bags and all the other awkward little things you don’t know how to sort.”

We’ve been filling an old juice bottle since Cape Town. Every now and then we pass it around and push our snack wrappers in.

“When it starts to get full, you can use a stick or a knitting needle to pack it in tighter,” says Candice hunting for something to use. “Here, feel it. See how it’s starting to feel heavy? It’s an awesome building material, because all the plastic acts as insulation.

The Green Village, Livingstone, Zambia

Together with Candice’s knowledge and the creative skills of the Greenpop team, we’ve created a pledge for volunteers to take on arrival at the Green Village, which they can seal with a thumbprint.

I am nature. The planet is my home. I pledge to protect it because it is my own. The objects we use have a life before they come into our hands, and they have a life long after we throw them away. I choose to care about what happens to the things I use. Where others see trash, I will see treasure.

The first step towards being zero-waste is awareness; of our consumer choices, of our habits, of what happens next. In the face of an overwhelming problem, I feel empowered by the decision to be aware.