Schools Made Out Of Trash?
Would you go to a school made of trash? Or live in a house made of trash?
I'd never heard of such craziness until I met a stranger while living in Guatemala.
But hey, I'm all about crazy and unconventional.
And talking to strangers even though my mom said not to.
I asked this guy what he was doing living in Guate.
I never could have guessed his answer even if he gave me 200 guesses.
He told me he was helping to build "bottle schools."
Aka a school made out of plastic bottles filled with trash:
(pics stolen from here because I'm a hoodrat thief now, apparently)
This was one of the coolest unconventional things ever!
Because not only was it weird, creative, and interesting...
...it solved a HUGE problem!
There is a serious lack of schools in certain parts of Guatemala.
If kids can even go, they have to travel for miles.
Uphill both ways, of course.
There isn't really any money to build any.
But building a school out of trash...
...well that's cheap!
AND it solves the huge litter problem that a lot of Latin America suffers from.
Not hating on Latin America, 'cause I love it.
It's a problem in a lot of other countries as well, but I'm not here to call out names.
Anyway, I just love the bottle school concept.
When they're done, they actually surround the bottles with a layer of cement to make the finished wall, so you can't see the trash inside.
Apparently, the trash helps insulate it a bit.
Who knew?
Here's what it looks like in the end:
^^stolen from here
Notice the bottles in the round window?
You can volunteer for 2 weeks with an organization called Hug It Forward to help build a bottle school.
You can also NOT volunteer for 2 weeks to help build a bottle school.
Just letting you know your options.
That's a really good idea. With the amount of garbage that most cities have we could all build a stadium and then some. I like seeing people reduse waste and finding new uses for things. This is a very innovative idea
Posted using Partiko Android
This is so trashy!!! In the best way possible :)
That trash-filled bottle is called an eco-brick, and people in South America started making them in 2003.
The practice was introduced here in the Philippines several years ago.
And, there are many Steemians who are into eco-bricking. My friend, Jacinta, is one of them, and I've re-steemed some of her eco-brick posts.
Ecobricks
Ecobricks.org
Building with trash is brilliant!
In the UK, they have a company which deals with just that! - EcoBricks
I'm currently collecting all the pouches from my cats' food, and I will send them to a friend who will sew them up in re-usable bags and with the tops of the pouches, she'll fill plastic bottles and send them to Ecobricks. :)
Every little helps, haha.
Good stuff.
Posted using Partiko Android
This is really nice! It could save and help the environment plus you get the chance to build schools and help shape up the children.
Brilliant idea! :)
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