Message in a Bottle
What’s the message? Sustainability. Re-purposing. Community. Awareness. Compassion. As part of the Compassion Tour, I visited with Compassionate DLF members and others at St. Barnabas Presbyterian Church as part of a bottle bricks group gathering. What is a bottle brick? If you stuff a 20 oz. plastic bottle with inorganic material until it’s solid, it can be used to engineer structures such as benches and houses. During the stuffing session, I described the experience of building the Compassion Corner Earthbench in Davis, California—it’s functionality as a communal gathering space, as an art piece, and a place for learning about sustainability. With a table full of discarded inorganic material, about a dozen bottles were created within an hour. Members of the church continue stuffing bottles in hopes of creating a bottle brick structure of their own. I offer gratitude to those who attended and who continue to promote a healthy planet through re-purposing.
More to come as the Compassion Tour continues.
Bottle bricks can be easily created by taking discarded Gatorade bottles (20 oz. is preferred) and stuffing them with inorganic materials such as plastic, foil, and other scraps that might otherwise pollute our environment. Be sure to cut plastic scraps when you can and you’ll be amazed at how much you can fit into a bottle. Bricks are ready once there is no more give on the sides of the bottle.
Wooden dowels come in pretty handy when trying to press and compact the plastic within the Gatorade bottles! The tennis balls help you maintain a strong grip. You’ll be amazed at how much you can fit into each bottle!
Dr. Charles Barker and Ron Bemis of Compassionate DFW stuff Gatorade bottles with discarded plastic scraps to create bricks.
Citizens of the DFW Metroplex gather to create plastic bottle bricks.