On June 16, 2018, the Laudato si – Kalusugan, Kalikasan at Kabuhayan (3K) group organized an Ecobricking Workshop to celebrate World Environment Month, which is on the month of June in the Philippines. The theme of the celebration usually focuses on a pressing environmental issue, which this year is ?beating plastic pollution?.

The Ecobricking Workshop was held right after the celebration of the Holy Mass by Msgr. Jerry Bitoon and a visiting priest from the USA at the St. Martin de Porres Home for Children. The workshop itself is an ongoing undertaking led by the Laudato si 3K (LS-3K) group. Twice a month, the members of the LS-3k gather to teach different groups how to properly do ecobricking.

The next plan is to expand the ecobricking by connecting with the government through the Department of Education (DepEd).  Previously, we had an agreement with the DepEd through the Superintendent of Schools to have the public schools encourage their students to collect softaflextic wrappers.  The use of sachets for food, shampoo, conditioners, detergents, etc. is quite common in the Philippines. So, encouraging the students to collect the sachets at home and bringing them to school became a successful project.

The students were able to collect 360 kilos of sachets brought in from their homes in a matter of months. These were picked up by Unilever Philippines and brought to the Materials Recovery Facilities, ground and used as a main component in making ecobricks.  These were actual bricks that were used for constructing buildings and for garden pavers. After a few weeks, Unilever delivered 2000 pieces of ecobricks back to the DepEd which were divided among the schools that collected the sachets.

Ecobricking in this way that they stuff bottles with plastic will be a very interesting way of keeping plastic from getting into the landfill or into our water resources like rivers, oceans and lakes. Hopefully more people will start practicing ecobricking as their contribution to environmental protection.