1. The webinar on International Plastic Bag Free Day was organised on 3rd July 2021 from 3:00 p.m. The volunteers of the NSS unit participated in the webinar to discuss ecobricks and spread awareness on the importance of a plastic-free environment.

Fig: Some ecobricks made by the NSS volunteers at their homes

Concept of ecobricks

The popularity of ecobricks as a building block or material comes from the reusability of used PET bottles and used plastics. The plastics that are not recycled find greater use here in the making of ecobricks. In simple words, ecobricks are nothing but used plastic bottles (waste) filled with used plastic (waste).

Method: The plastics and the plastic bottles are cleaned and dried and the plastics are filled inside the bottles as tightly as possible leaving no space. A long stick (or the long end of a whisker/beater/masher used in kitchen) may be used to push the plastic inside tightly. Once the bottle is completely full that there is no space left, it is capped. One ecobrick is made! In a similar way, more ecobricks are made. These are used for the construction of furniture, houses and other recreational or architectural structures.

Activity by the volunteers

The volunteers collected waste or used plastic - soap or detergent wrappers, packaged food plastic covers, used single-use plastics, PET bottles, etc.

They cleaned and dried the collected plastics. Then they filled the bottles with plastics using the method mentioned above.

During the work process, they were asked to make video recordings of them doing the work. Some of the volunteers were given the responsibility to record themselves to speak on ecobricks, their relevance and spreading awareness about this simple alternative to reduce and reuse plastic wastes. All the recordings were assembled and edited and a final video was produced.

The resulting works were presented in the webinar.

Objective and Learning Outcomes

It was a learning experience for the volunteers as well as the participants of the webinar. Plastic pollution is a growing menace to society and the problems associated with it are clearly prominent in everyday life. The need to find alternative solutions to reducing, reusing and recycling plastic wastes is of the utmost importance. The work done by the NSS unit on building ecobricks and spreading awareness is a small contribution to the society and environment at large.

The ecobricks made by the volunteers are kept and more of such are being continually made. They will be used later in the college to build something meaningful and useful.

- Urvashi Lama
Programme Officer (NSS Unit) Assistant Professor (Dept. of Botany)

ACTIVITIES 2023-24

Visit to KRISHI VIGYAN KENDRA, Howrah for Millet Utsav for raising awareness on the importance of Millets

Date: 25.07.2023, No of participants (Students-30, teachers-4)