Making an Ecobrick Module
- Ruth Walsh
- Jul 18, 2019
- 2 min read
Updated: Apr 26, 2020
Earlier in the year, I was asked by my son’s preschool teacher if I would come in and talk to the kids about plastic - recycling, reducing, refusing - and making Ecobricks. The kids were fantastic and really eager to learn what they could do to help.
A couple of weeks ago my son finished up in the preschool as he will be going to big school in September. As a thank you to his teachers, and to give them something to use when talking to future classes about plastics, we made them an ecobrick stool :)
The stool is essentially a single ecobrick module. See steps below for how to make your own ecobrick module.
Step 1:
Make your ecobricks - see Step 3 - Ecobricks blog post.
Note: The only plastic bottles we have coming into our home are 1 litre orange juice bottles so we make ecobricks with these for our own use. If you want to make ecobricks for Seal Rescue Ireland or some other cause, you will need to use 2 litre soda bottles.
Step 2:
Lay out what you need:
Ecobricks (I needed 7)
Silicon & pump for silicon
String / wool / tape - basically something to hold the module together as it dries / sets
Step 3:
Start to "glue" the ecobricks together:
Pick the ecobrick that will become the centre of the module (ecobrick 1).
Run a line of silicon from the top to the bottom of ecobrick 1 where you are going to "stick" another ecobrick (ecobrick 2).
"Stick" ecobrick 2 to the line of silicon on ecobrick 1.
Fill any gaps between the two ecobricks with more silicon.
Run a line of silicon from the top to the bottom of ecobricks 1 and 2 where you are going to "stick" another ecobrick (ecobrick 3).
"Stick" ecobrick 3 to the lines of silicon on ecobricks 1 and 2.
Fill any gaps between the three ecobricks with more silicon.
Repeat 5,6 and 7 until all the ecobricks are stuck together in a honeycomb shaped module.
Tie your string / wool or tape your tape tightly around the ecobrick module to hold it together while it dries / sets.
Pump silicon into all gaps between the ecobricks.
Wipe off / tidy up any messy silicon Tip: I used the dried silicon (that I squeezed out from the silicon tube before I began) to neaten up my lines of silicon as I went along.
Leave to dry overnight.
Remove string / wool / tape from the module.
Yay!! You have an ecobrick module!
If you want to make a bigger module, you can just add another row of ecobricks to the outside of your module using the steps above.
Step 4:
Make yourself a cup of tea, pat yourself on the back and put your feet up on your ecobrick module while you think of what you are going to use it for!!
In the end, J wouldn't let his teachers keep the module we made but don't worry, we will make the teachers another one over the summer. J keeps it in his bedroom and uses it to sit and read his books :)
Watch this great video that S made on how to construct an EcoBrick module :)
Comments