conversation between 2 citizens on uses of ecobricks
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After a morning spent cleaning up plastic from a river in the mountains of Pupuan, Bali, a group of teenagers created signs to place in the village to help stem the tide of dumping. One 16-year old painted Budayakan keranjang dan daun pisang, translating to “Socialize a culture of baskets and banana leaves.”
Just a few generations ago in Bali, Indonesia, all goods were packaged in baskets, banana leaves, and other natural materials. Furniture and toys were made of unpainted bamboo and wood. Temporary packaging, religious offerings, and objects past their useful lives were tossed to the nearest unoccupied hillside when no longer needed, and melted into the soil to create new life. Many residents remain unaware that plastic and other non-biodegradable goods do not fit into natural cycles of creation and decomposition. The global economy’s reliance on the production and consumption of disposable goods is manifest in the chip wrappers, plastic bags, and single-serving shampoo packets that move quickly from shops into valleys, rivers, and beaches, and into dioxin-laced smoke pouring from burning piles of leaves and refuse in roadside ditches.In Bali and throughout the world, governments and economies have reinforced the consumption of plastic by offering centralized “solutions” to the problem of non-recyclable, non-biodegradable trash. Dumpsites are invariably located in the poorest areas without consent from surrounding communities, and waste-to-electricity incinerator plants create a profit motive for more production of waste. Both approaches, as well as recycling programs, take waste “away,” limiting the awareness that might slow the consumption of mass-produced goods, while avoiding accountability for the industries that produce them.
Local Futures usually profiles examples of system-level change, such as community-driven bans on plastic bags and junk food, recognizing that the locus of responsibility for problems and transformative solutions falls on economic systems rather than on consumer choices. Still, technological solutions for cleaning up existing plastic and protecting the most vulnerable parts of the biosphere are an important accompaniment to systemic transitions in the production and use of disposable plastics. To that end, this month’s article focuses on the ecobrick, a simple and profound method of sequestering post-consumer soft plastics, exploring its relationship with the global economy and ability to catalyze changes in ecological consciousness.