Alexandra hosted the event about how to make Ecobricks, building blocks made of plastic bottles stuffed with single-use plastics
A workshop about how to re-purpose single-use plastics has come up with plenty of ideas.
The event, at Carriages Café at Newark Castle Station on Monday, was organised by environmental campaigner Alexandra Abraham.
She is passionate about a simple idea that offers a long-term use for non-recyclable plastics.
Ecobricks are building blocks made of plastic bottles stuffed tightly with single-use plastics, which can then be re-purposed in a variety of ways.
Plastic that can go into ecobricks includes bags, photo paper, crisp packets, sweet wrappers, food containers, straws, cutlery, cling film, and fruit and vegetable packaging.
A completed ecobrick should weigh about a third in grammes of its volume in millilitres, so a 1.5-litre bottle should weigh about 500g.
Ecobricks can be used in all sorts of sustainable building projects, disposing of plastic waste that would otherwise end up in landfill and oceans.
Monday’s workshop, which was free to attend, was supported by Carriages, which tries to operate as sustainably as possible.
Alex said the evening had gone very well and had got people thinking about how locally-made ecobricks could be used.
“We thought of possibly making a bench for Newark Hospital,” she said.
The group decided that making ecobricks from two standard bottle sizes would be practical — 1.5-litre ridged square squash bottles and two-litre round fizzy drinks bottles.
Alex has been making ecobricks using every scrap of single-use plastic she can, and on Monday showed others how to do the same, and to think about how to use them .
“Keep a bag by your sink,” Alexandra said. “You will be stunned how much plastic you collect.”
Alex said the Newark ecobricks group would continue to meet, and also discuss other recycling issues.
“There is no doubt the movement is gathering momentum,” she said.
