Are ecobricks the answer to plastic pollution?

Are ecobricks the answer to plastic pollution?
A student in Bontoc, Northern Philippines proudly holds his Ecobricks. Credit: Photo taken by Josephine Chan and Ian Christie. Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International


How to make Ecobricks

Take an empty two-litre . Fill it with all your over time. Make sure to compact the plastics properly. When full, deliver at a collection spot. These "ecobricks" will then be used to build low-cost houses.

Professor Herman Potgieter answers questions about whether the planet's plastic trash tsunami can be stopped.

Are these plastic-based ecobricks safe for the environment?



Plastics take very long to break down and they usually don't break down into liquid form but as smaller solids, called micro-plastics. Nobody really knows how long it takes for plastic to break down into its chemical compounds—it could be hundreds or thousands of years. Micro-plastics can cause tremendous environmental problems.

Credit: Wits University


Plastics have a devastating effect on the fauna of the planet's oceans. These small plastic particles can cause havoc for animals such as whales and fish. In one instance, a dead fish was found with 22kg of plastic in its stomach.


Not really, but plastics and micro-plastics of any size can pose a threat to living organisms. In the sea, they can block whales' digestive tracts, entangle sea turtles, and affect the photosynthesis of algae. They're also a problem in rivers and fresh water lakes. It could be that when you drink water out of a , you are ingesting micro-plastics. Nobody really knows what the consequences are for the health of the consumer. It's best to take no chances—don't drink out of plastic bottles. Micro-plastics and microbeads (in various commercial products such as facewash and tooth paste) can be hazardous in the long term and microbeads have been banned in various products.





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Provided by Wits University
Citation: Are ecobricks the answer to plastic pollution? (2019, July 25) retrieved 23 July 2021 from https://phys.org/news/2019-07-ecobricks-plastic-pollution.html

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