PLASTIC wastes have been the hardest to manage in terms of its disposal after use. But residents of Barangay Zone 10 in Talisay City in collaboration with punong barangay and City Councilor Resty Tuvilla found means on how to make those plastic wastes useful again.
Just a simple motivation to the residents, the said officials enjoined them to gather plastic wastes from their homes and immediate vicinity in exchange of staple rice.
They named the initiative as “BARTER BUGAS SA BASURA,” that spurred the residents to collect, dry, cut-up in small pieces and tightly-packed into 1.5 liter bottles ready to be used as building block for ecobricks.
“For every kilo of bottle bricks, our barangay barters two kilos of rice,” Tuvilla said. Together with his village council members and local residents, they cleared waterways in the area since July 2019 as un-clogging measure against urban floods, as well as an educative way of promoting segregation and getting underway the discipline among households on how to keep track of their plastic consumption.
Tuvilla added that the “bottle bricks” shall be used as building block to mold eco-bricks. The bottle bricks are used around the world to build benches, houses, school buildings and other multi-functional structures. Tuvilla revealed that the bottle bricks will be used to construct the first playhouse for the children of Barangay 10.
Like all other government initiatives, the officials of Barangay 10 in Talisay City are overwhelmed by the enthusiasm and support of their constituents. “It is now a matter of sustaining this program since the volume of bottle bricks is growing in number,” Tuvilla added.
The bottle-brick-drive covers only the residents of Barangay Zone 10. A method utilized by the local council to evaluate the impact and efficacy of this initiative is to conduct a follow-through clean-up drive at the area where the bulk of the weighed-in bottle bricks hailed from to actuate if there is an evident reduction in the volume of plastic wastes around the vicinity.
Bottle bricks are stuffed with unrecyclable plastic and has been gaining momentum in the development of construction materials in other parts of the world. When packed with other materials like sand, earth, gravel or solid wastes, bottle brick is claimed to be four times stronger than a regular hollow block.