We live in a world that has been infected with plastics. Enough plastic is thrown away each year to circle the earth four times. With sustainable development goal 14 – Life below Water and 15 – Life on Land in mind, the GCE Team asked themselves, “What can we do to tackle the plastic problems in our world?”. The solution was to take on an Ecobrick challenge.

An Ecobrick is a plastic bottle packed with single use plastic. The bottle becomes increasingly strong as more and more plastic is compacted inside. These bottles can be used in a variety of ways; from building furniture to building houses. The GCE team in Blackrock college decided to create an Ecobrick couch for our TY recreation area.

In 2019 the school started on their Ecobrick journey. Each 2^nd and 3^rd year student created ecobricks as part of their CSPE action project. Later when remote learning became the norm, transition year students took to the task and further added to the number of ecobricks in our school.

After many months of creating ecobricks the construction finally began. Through careful planning and preparation and when a detailed 3D design had been drawn up, the students in TY began to glue the plastic blocks together with TECH7 glue. This was a great experience for the students as they were able to see, what was seen as “single use plastic” be repurposed and transform into something new.