Eco Fun: Making an Eco Brick

  • Some soft plastics are not recyclable and end up in the landfills. But you can teach your kids to use them.

  • An eco-brick is a plastic bottle tightly packed with plastic wrappers and other soft plastics. These bricks are used as building blocks to make all kinds of projects. People use them to build sheds, garden divisions, or raised gardens and walls.

  • This helps our planet because, instead of sending them to landfill, we are giving them a use. Look for a local organization to donate the eco-bricks you make.

  • In addition, you can help the kids learn more about recycling at home with our free interactive ebook Green Our Home. Show the kids that small actions around the house can lead to a big impact on the planet.

  • Materials needed: plastic bottles, clean and dry soft plastics, stick to push the plastics

plastic bag in forest.jpg
 
plastic milk jug in forest upstate summer.jpg

And Now What?

  • Ask the kids to find an empty, clean, and dry plastic bottle and clean and dry soft plastics. The soft plastics can be bags, packaging, food packaging foil, and even polystyrene.

  • Cut bigger plastics into smaller pieces.

  • As you keep cutting, the kids can start filling the bottles with the pieces until the bottles are half full.

    Help them push the plastic down with a stick. You need to push it in tightly.

  • Ask the kids to fill the bottle with more plastics.

  • Push down the plastics with your stick.

  • Continue this cycle of filling and pushing until the bottle is very densely packed with the plastics.

  • Close with the cap and store until you can donate your bricks.

 
 
maria gagos