What are bottle schools?

From Bottle School Wiki

Bottle schools are schools built out of “waste” plastic bottles and other inorganic trash. Thousands of bottles are collected and stuffed full of inorganic trash such as plastic bags, chip packets and polystyrene until they are hard like bricks. These are known as “eco-bricks”.

The eco-bricks are stacked one on top of the other, "sandwiched" between chicken wire on the inside of the walls and outside. The chicken wire helps form the wall, and cement binds to it when applied to the walls to create a smooth stucco finish. This thin yet strong steel/cement material is known as “ferro-cement”.

Bottle schools are an efficient and environmentally-friendly way to fill the big need for educational infrastructure that exists in many developing countries while providing a solution for communities that lack waste management systems. Burning trash, littering and improper burial are replaced with a re-utilization of waste as a construction medium.

Re-using plastic “waste” to build the schools achieves some very important goals: building a school cheaply and efficiently; cleaning the community of trash; and educating youth about recycling and the environmental impact of our non-biodegradable waste – in the community at large and even in the entire region that the school is being built in.

These are just some of the very many advantages of building bottle schools. Read on for more!