My Service Learning project was planned to be an amazing initiative that I would implement and the school would carry through for years to come. Ecobricks peaked my interest after seeing them on social media and after a lot of research I realised that South Africa, specifically Kwa-Zulu Natal did not have much of an Ecobrick community at all.
The Relevance:
Plastic is becoming a major issue as a pollutant all around the world (GoBrik, 2022). In Ballito we see this problem on our beaches and on our roads and there is not much done about the problem. There are many initiatives to pick up plastic at beach clean-ups but what is being done with the plastic thereafter? Much of it is sent to the dump alongside the rest of our rubbish and is being burnt allowing the fumes to further damage our O-zone layer (GoBrik, 2022).
This initiative fixes that problem completely, Ecobricks are made of 2 – liter plastic bottles in which clean, dry plastic is inserted into the bottle until it becomes compact and ready to seal (GoBrik, 2022). These Ecobricks are then used in building projects to either uplift the local communities or to use for personal building projects – either way the Ecobricks are an opportunity to create a use for used plastic and stop it from ending up in our oceans or on our streets (GoBrik, 2022).
In terms of curriculum integration, Ecobricks bring recycling into a tangible experience where learners can both begin a new, fun recycling activity to their everyday life but they can also become aware of just how much plastic they are using in their homes.
Implementing Ecobricks is an amazing opportunity to become the foundation of Ecobricks in Kwa-Zulu Natal as well as reduce the plastic pollution in our oceans and local communities.
This is an initiative that can be carried through the school for an indefinite amount of time as plastic has always been and continues to be a big problem in the world.
My Proposal:
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