{"id":12480,"date":"2025-01-21T11:19:24","date_gmt":"2025-01-21T19:19:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/ecologue\/?p=12480"},"modified":"2025-01-21T11:29:05","modified_gmt":"2025-01-21T19:29:05","slug":"haeli-rowland-tackles-plastic-waste-with-ecobricks-initiative","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/ecologue\/2025\/01\/21\/haeli-rowland-tackles-plastic-waste-with-ecobricks-initiative\/","title":{"rendered":"Haeli Rowland Tackles Plastic Waste with EcoBricks Initiative!"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

EcoBricks are created by tightly stuffing plastic or other non-recyclable trash into plastic bottles. These compact, durable \u201cbricks\u201d can be repurposed into structures like garden beds, benches, or walls using cement or other binding materials.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Haeli Rowland, a senior majoring in Tourism Recreation and Adventure Leadership at Oregon State University, is taking a hands-on approach to sustainability. For her honors thesis, Rowland has launched the EcoBricks project, an innovative way to reduce plastic waste by turning it into something practical and purposeful. \u00a0She aspires for this project to be an easy way for the community to contribute to sustainability.\u00a0 For many, reducing plastic or adopting eco-friendly habits can feel overwhelming. EcoBricks are a simple way to redirect waste from landfills into something constructive.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Haeli Rowland, Senior<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n
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Collection Bucket<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

There are 8 collection buckets across campus. Items that are not made of wood, metal, paper, or anything compostable, can be added to the buckets. Once collected, the waste is cut into small pieces and packed into bottles.  Haeli\u2019s current goal is to make about 100 bricks to create a bench. This project will hopefully inspire larger scale change to repurpose plastic. “With the world\u2019s inefficient recycling systems, these bricks act as temporary \u2018time capsules,\u2019 preventing plastic from sitting in landfills or polluting ecosystems until there are better solutions to breakdown or reuse these materials.” said Rowland.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

The OSU community is invited to participate in the project! From January 6 to March 20, volunteers can join her on Mondays and Thursdays from 6\u20137 p.m. in the Agriculture and Life Sciences Building, Room 3005, to cut plastic and stuff bottles. \u201cOne brick usually takes me about an hour and a half, depending on the size and type of trash\u201d said Rowland, \u201cHelp is always appreciated!\u201d. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The project is estimated to conclude in May 2025, and Rowland hopes it will leave a lasting impression on the importance of rethinking waste!<\/p>\n\n\n

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EcoBricks are created by tightly stuffing plastic or other non-recyclable trash into plastic bottles. These compact, durable \u201cbricks\u201d can be repurposed into structures like garden beds, benches, or walls using cement or other binding materials. Haeli Rowland, a senior majoring in Tourism Recreation and Adventure Leadership at Oregon State University, is taking a hands-on approach […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13989,"featured_media":12487,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12480","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/ecologue\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12480","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/ecologue\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/ecologue\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/ecologue\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/13989"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/ecologue\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12480"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/ecologue\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12480\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12493,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/ecologue\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12480\/revisions\/12493"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/ecologue\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12487"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/ecologue\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12480"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/ecologue\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12480"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/ecologue\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12480"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}