We’re all tired of hearing the bad news about plastic pollution. Interested in helping spread the word about the exciting spread and co-creative innovations happening in the ecobricks movement? Awesome. We are at your service to help you create a great and inspiring story.
Covering ecobricks is not going to be easy. The core concepts of ecobricks literally go against most people’s ideas about plastic. We have put together this kit to help you craft your coverage of the ecobrick concepts and movement. There are a lot of great stories about what people are doing with ecobricks– but paramount is spreading the correct core ideas, principles and wording– which in fact make ecobricks the awesome, new-paradigm solution to plastic that it is.
The first thing about ecobricks that makes it different, is that it is an inescapably personal solution.
This is not another government program, or some big proprietary tech that will make plastic pollution magically disappear in a few years. Its not something that other people do, or you tell people to do. It is the direct opposite. It is something that everyone can do themselves, right now. Including journalists. We suggest that you take your time and go through the process of saving and weighing your own plastic consumed over a month and making an ecobrick, before doing your story on ecobricks.
Misconceptions
That said, since many journalists keep themselves quite busy, we have put together a list of the main errors that are made about ecobricks:
- “Ecobricks are made with plastic trash”— You’ll notice on this site we never use the word ‘trash’. Instead, ecobricks turn plastic into a resource. Please do not connect ecobricks with “trash” or “garbage”.
- “Ecobricks are for building schools and homes”— Although you can build structures with them, 99% of ecobricks are being used for small home, school and community creations. We focus on tiny applications, like furniture models, Lego, and especially gardens.
- “Ecobricks are for developing countries and poor people”— Ecobricks are for anyone who wants to take responsibility for their plastic, and are relevant around the world. Right now, after David Attenborough’s recent BBC documentary, we have tons of people in the UK making ecobricks — they have realized that recycling doesn’t work and sending their plastic to Asia is not a solution.
- “Ecobricks are for places where recycling isn’t an option” — Ecobricks are ideal for places with recycling. Ecobricks help keep plastic out of the recycling industry! Recycling is not deep a solution for plastic. Recycling inevitably sends plastic on a one way trip to the biosphere.
- “Ecobricks is a Sustainable Development technology”: The ecobrick movement explicitly differentiates itself from “sustainabity” and “development” paradigms. Please do not refer to ecobricks in this light. Ecobricks is a non-capital, collaboration powered, regenerative technology.
- “The GEA is a Company or an NGO”: The Global Ecobricks is a not-for-profit Earth Enterprise.
Spelling
In 2016, ecobrick leaders around the world conferred and agreed that our concept deserved its own full fledged and normalized word. We agreed to spell the word ‘ecobrick‘, as one word, non-hyphenated, and without any spaces or capitalization. This spelling is now accepted throughout the movement and the word is used on the Wikipedia entry. Please use the following spelling, terms and symbols when referring to our Brikcoin crypto-token.
Term: Brikcoin
Abbreviation: BRK
Currency Sign: ß
Video and Photo Source Files
All our videos and photos on this site and on our YouTube channel are available for you to use under our Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. We ask that all usage is attributed to Ecobricks.org. This is absolutely key. Anyone who shares the ecobrick message (including and especially us) has the moral obligation to ensure the reference to best ecobrick practices and the core principles. This is why we started our Ecobricks.org site and have worked hard to put all our materials up for free and widespread access. Please clearly indicate ecobricks.org in your coverage. For videos, please close with this link. For Facebook videos and social media posts, pinning a post with this link is requested.
We have a Dropbox repository of all our video files. This includes many HD clips and sequences that are not on our YouTube channel and higher resolution versions of the originals. Please contact us using the form below and we can send this to you.
Interviews
Stock ecobrick photos for Media use.
CC-By-SA usage license: Please caption credit all photos to ecobricks.org. Use provided captions as appropriate.
Ecobrick Furniture in Action
Ood Lantip, reads a book on his Ecobrick courch, beside his ecobrick table in Semarang, Central Java, Indonesia.
Cilacap Scout Troop Gets Ecobricking
A scout group learns to ecobrick through the efforts of GEA Trainer Mas Noor Hydaya in Cilacap, Central Java, Indonesia.
Dieleman Ecobrick Lego Modules
Senior GEA Trainers, Ani and Russell pose with a set of dieleman ecobrick lego modules at a city event in Cilacap, Central Java Indonesia.
Ecobrick Modular Home Furniture
Senior GEA Trainers, Russell and Ani, serve tea and lunch at their home on their ecobrick furniture.
Ecobrick Starter Workshop
The Laudato Si ecobrick community runs a workshop in Manila, Philippines.
Ecobricks put to use to make an outdoor rocking chair in South Africa
Stirling Primary School, East London, South Africa has not only been making hundreds of ecobricks, but also putting them to use.
Ecobrick ‘Foops’ and rocking chairs – Stirling Primary School, South Africa
Ecobrick display and stage
Cozy Ecobrick Home Furniture
Children relax on their home ecobrick furniture in Central Java, Indonesia.
Bringing light and ecobricks to the world
An entire work space with ecobrick furniture
Ecobrick workshop Punta Engano High School
Ecobrick display with various modules
Ecobrick garden bench
Ecobrick modules office desk
Milstein Hexagon Modules
Ecobrick Christmas tree
Ecobrick Christmas tree lit up
Making ecobricks
Milstein module – triangle
Ecobrick food forest
Ecobrick couch by Boitekong Protective Workshop, South Africa
Ecobrick shelves
Modules in action for work and play
Making and using ecobricks
Ecobrick festivities
Happy ecobricking
Ecobrick modules and stage
Ecobrick stage beginning phase
Ecobrick modules in action
Ecobrick Milstein modules
Ecobrick modules
Ecobrick bin
Ecobrick motif
Ecobrick motif 2
Ecobrick lego modules
Ecobrick raised vegetable garden
Balinese GEA Trainer
East Java Trainers
East Java Trainers in Probolingo District East Java
East Java trainers Probolingo District
Ecobrick Metro Manila Development Authority Solid Waste Management Division Office
GEA Trainers from Pacitan Indo
Metro Manila Development Authority Solid Waste Mangement Division Office lead by Elsie Encarnacion
Media Enquiries
Frequently Asked Questions about Ecobricks.
- What is an ecobrick? /what
- How to make an ecobrick? /how
- Why make ecobricks? /why
- Who are you guys? /about
- Where can I drop my ecobricks? /dropoff
- What is Cradle-to-Cradle design? /cradle
- What can you make with ecobricks? /build
- What are Ecobric Modules?/modules
- How to make an ecobrick bench? /earth
- How to make ecobrick Lego? /dms
- What about beach and ocean plastic? /oceanecobrick
- How to connect with the movement? /movement
- How to get trained to teach ecobricks? /trainings
- What is the PTR? /ptr
- What can companies do? /catalyst
- The Dangers of Plastic /poison
- How to do a story on ecobricks /media
- How to contribute /contribute
- How to view Gobrik Flow /flow
- How to contact us /contact
- How to sign up for an account /start
Plastic is Poison
Through sun and water exposure, plastic breaks down into environmental toxins. Packing it into an ecobrick secures it from poisoning the biosphere. This is important and valuable!
The Junk Food Connection
Is there a connection between the pollution of the planet and of our bodies? We explore this question and more in our VEB resources.
