A Diepsloot-based organisation is helping kids save the environment, brick by brick
DIEPSLOOT – Help build a better world, one brick at a time, by joining Roots and Shoots' eco-brick project in the Diepsloot informal settlement.
Single-use plastics are a blight to our planet, but one Diepsloot-based organisation is fighting them while also teaching local youth and residents to become active citizens.
The local branch of the Roots and Shoots organisation, in partnership with the Diepsloot-based Wot-If? Trust, has begun a project with organisation participants as well as members of the public to begin creating eco-bricks. The bricks, which are made out of plastic bottles and filled with single-use plastics that cannot be recycled will be used in a building project at the Wot-If? Trust grounds, located on the corner of Peach Street and 1st Road in the informal settlement.
“Eco-bricks are made out of any plastic bottle, which you stuff with single-use plastic and other non-recyclable materials,” explained Rita Groenewald of Roots and Shoots. “Eventually the bottle is so compacted that it becomes strong enough to use in construction. As more bricks come to us, we’re preparing to start a project where we’ll build walls here on the grounds to test their stability and see how they turn out.”
A big part of this work is getting the community involved. In order to encourage recycling, an eco-trading store has also opened on the grounds.
Child participants of Roots and Shoots, as well as some Diepsloot adults, are part of a system whereby they can bring in eco-bricks and other recyclable materials to the organisation in return for points. People can then use these points to ‘purchase’ goods from the store such as school supplies, clothing, toiletries or household goods. Members of the public can also contribute bricks. “We really want people to drop off completed eco-bricks at our drop-off points, which are located at Jacksons Real Food Market (both the Bryanston and the Kyalami branches) as well as Friends of Free Wildlife (located on Maple Road),” Groenewald explained.
“You can keep the bottle in your kitchen and as the week goes by just add in plastic, and that will give you a sense of just how much single-use plastic we actually encounter day to day.
“We’re looking for volunteers to help us construct our planned walls, as many as possible. Also, you can donate any goods in good condition to the eco-trading store for participants to buy with their points.”
According to Groenewald, the support Roots and Shoots receives from the Wot-If? Trust is invaluable, and the two organisations partnered on this project because environmental care is a shared value and aim.
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Laylaa Waja, the communications manager for the Wot-If? Trust explained that her organisation focuses on enhancing livelihoods and enabling people to get work, aims that can definitely be met with this sort of project.
“One of our focuses is greening and sustainability in Diepsloot,” she explained. “Aside from the fact that this project promotes caring for the environment, providing education and job creation in the township, we support this work because we want to help create a beautiful green Diepsloot.”
Anyone who is able to volunteer for this or other Roots and Shoots projects are encouraged to contact the organisation directly.
Details: The Wot-If? Trust Facebook page; Twitter @Wotiftrust; Rita Groenewald rita@rootsandshoots.org.za; WhatsApp 072 723 9256.
