Plastic bottles, wastes recycled into ‘ecobricks’

CEBU CITY – The city has introduced a novel way to recycle and reuse plastic wastes and plastic water bottles. Nida Cabrera, head of the Cebu City Environment and Natural Resources Office (CCENRO), showed Manila Bulletin how plastic bottles can be converted into bricks for building, for example.

Cabrera said eco-bricks are one-liter mineral water plastic bottles stuffed with all kinds of plastic wastes like candy wrappers.

A one-liter bottle can be crammed with 400-500 grams of plastic waste materials, she said.

“The sticks we used to push the plastic wastes down the bottles, are called “Warrior Sticks,” and the finished products we call eco-bricks because they are as hard as real bricks,” Cabrera said.

Fifty barangays in the city have been trained to produce eco-bricks to be used as riprap material or turned into crafts such as chairs and tables.

Cabrera said women organizations in the barangays volunteered to produce eco-bricks. “We started doing this in January this year and so far, we have already produced more than 3,000 bricks,” she said.

The eco-bricks project keeps plastics from being burned or discarded wantonly. Because plastics are non-biodegradable they accumulate in the soil and oceans, posing a major environmental problem.

Cabrera said that on average, a 600ml eco-brick can sequester 0.62kg. of carbon dioxide (CO2) and a 1.5-liter ecobrick can sequester 4.6kg. of CO2.

Cabrera added the project aims to gather more plastic materials and bottles to produce eco-bricks which will be used to shore up the banks of the Butuanon River. The river always overflows during heavy rain, flooding the SM/Mandaue areas.

Cabrera said 5,000 to 10,000 eco-ricks are needed for the landscaping the banks of the Butuanon and develop it into an ecopark.

She said schools and communities are being asked to be part of the project.

Violators of the anti-littering ordinance, who cannot pay the penalty, will instead be required to make at least two 1-liter bottles into eco-bricks.

The Butuanon River is being rehabilitated in preparation for the International River Summit in Cebu this November. Cabrera said city would like to showcase the eco-bricks project during the summit.