KEARNEY SUSTAINABILITY SNIPPETS

Encourage. Develop. Lead. KSM Volume 1, Issue 7

What is the Kearney Sustainability Movement?

We are a group of individuals who all have a passion for using the limited resources available to us in a wise manner. The goal of the group is to help spread the word about sustainable activities, influence sustainable change in our community, and to continue to grow our knowledge about sustainable practices. We meet monthly, on the third Thursday of the month, at the Kearney Public Library and discuss ways we can help influence and create sustainable practices in the community.

What have we done so far?

While talking with Central Community College’s Students 4 Sustainability we came across the topic of EcoBricks. EcoBricks are plastic bottles filled with other plastics. With the world's plastic waste becoming ever more abundant, we thought this to be a useful alternative.

Sustainability Tidbit for the Month:

This month we are going to talk about EcoBricks. Now you may be asking yourself “What is an EcoBrick?” Well EcoBricks are plastic bottles that are filled with non-recyclable or hard to recycle plastics, which then can be used to build a variety of different objects.

Before one starts shoving plastics inside of bottles, there are some things we need to discuss first. First, all the plastics need to be cleaned and dried before starting. This is to prevent methane build-up from any decaying food residue, which can cause the bricks to fail over time. It is also easier to have bottles that are the same shape and size. This will make the building process be more fluid later. Softer plastics, like grocery bags, are easy to work with, but harder plastics can also go into your EcoBrick. Keep in mind that the harder plastics, and some soft plastics, will need to be cut down into smaller pieces in order to fit inside your bottles. We found that plastic grocery bags are the easiest thing to use since they usually don’t need to be cut down.

When you begin stuffing your bottles do so with some soft plastics first. This makes it easier to fill all the crevices at the bottom of the bottle. Then take a long, narrow, durable utensil/object to push the plastics towards the bottom of the bottle and make it compact. You will be repeating this process until the base of the bottle is full. Now you can use a mixture of hard and soft plastics in the rest of the bottle. Continue putting some plastic in and compressing it down with your chosen tool. The goal is to get the bottles so compact that there is hardly any give when pressure is put on them.

Once the lid is secured tightly on the bottles, you can use them to build anything you want. This can range from flower beds to furniture. You can also use a variety of items to hold them together. For more permanent items cement can be used, and for lighter projects durable glues or silicons are preferred. Keep in mind that if you use EcoBricks for outside use, they need to be completely covered with a non combustible material to prevent the sun from breaking down the integrity of the plastics. There are unlimited possibilities for the use of EcoBricks.

Even though EcoBricks are an excellent way to utilize the non recyclable or hard to recycle plastics, we encourage everyone to pressure companies to reduce plastic packaging to help combat the ever growing issue of plastic waste.

At the Kearney Public Library in the South Platte Room - We will be making EcoBricks!

Our mission is to encourage the spread of knowledge, the development of practices, and to lead our community towards a sustainable and prosperous future.