By Susan Oertle | Co-Founder
Where does garbage go when there are no garbage trucks, no trash collectors, and no landfills? It goes into the ditches, side yards, and common areas of the community. Sometimes it gets burned, releasing toxic gases into the air and threatening the health of the local people, animals, and vegetation. Such was the situation in Rubuguri, Uganda, the area where The Angel Projects conducts its programs. We knew that something had to be done.
So, two years ago, we launched our Greenhouse Project, using plastic water bottles to build the structure. In that way, we were at least repurposing the large plastic bottles that were often burned, to the detriment of the villagers who were forced to breathe in the toxic fumes released in the fires. Still, we were faced with another dilemma: what would we do with the plastic bottles in 3 years when they needed to be replaced in the greenhouse?
The answer to that question came in the form of ecobricks--building "bricks" made out of plastic bottles filled with other types of trash. Each brick must be packed and weighed carefully, to certain specifications. These bricks can then be used in local construction. We were thrilled to discover this solution that would not only repurpose the old plastic bottles but would also be a way to reuse other trash from around the village. We started our ecobrick project by constructing benches on our property as a way to showcase the new project and as a teaching tool for those locals who were to assist us in this new conservation program.
This year, we've moved on to using the ecobricks in the construction of the new wall we're building around our property. Each panel of the wall will use 2,800 ecobricks--that's 280,000 ecobricks in all. That means that once our wall is complete, we will have removed over 90 tons of trash from the community! We're so excited to begin this initiative in order to lead conservation efforts in the area and to be an example to the rest of the community--there is always a solution to every problem!
As always, thank you SO much to all our donors and supporters--nothing we do would ever be possible without you. YOU are world changers!
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