Bottle Brick Bench

  • Location
    Silver Spring, Maryland
  • Status
    Active

The Problem

Our long-term abstract goal is to make the school and surrounding community aware of the problem of littering and the possibilities of repurposing and recycling; and to get people beyond our group to stop littering and start picking up litter. Our long-term concrete goal that will support our abstract goal is to construct a bottle brick bench by stuffing plastic litter into plastic bottles. Currently, students have stuffed over 100 bottle bricks. The bench, constructed from these bottle bricks, will be a functional piece of artwork at our school that will educate the school and surrounding community about repurposing trash and not littering. See http://www.earthbench.org/ The artwork on the bench will feature endangered species around the world and will be accompanied by posters showcasing research the students have done on the featured endangered species, so the bench will be a teaching tool about endangered species, as well as about littering.

Our Plan

Our project will take many, many pounds of largely non-recyclable plastic packaging out of the waste stream as well as removing litter from our community and the Chesapeake Bay watershed. Our bench will also be a visual representation of how much litter we generate and the possibilities of repurposing it. Since February 2014, we have been saving all of our plastic packaging, both from home and from school, as well as using all of the plastic litter from our school campus, and stuffing it into bottles to make bottle bricks. Our after-school club constructs bottle bricks; students in my class make bottle bricks by choice at recess or other free time, and students and staff make bottle bricks at home. We are working with a local nonprofit and with the East Coast representative of the international Peace on Earthbench Movement to construct our bench.

Themes Addressed

  • term icon
    Clean Water
  • term icon
    Community Enhancement
  • term icon
    Recycle

The Benefit

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