Single-use plastics do not break down in landfills, and therefore take up a considerable amount of space within them. Our team is collecting single-use plastics, such as water bottles and soft or hard plastics, with the idea to repurpose them in a practical way. Our goal is to develop a bench made entirely of ecobricks and a naturally occurring substrate. During this process, our team has worked on collecting materials and identifying an extremely sustainable method. Based on the steps outlined by the Global Ecobrick Alliance, we have started creating ecobricks that properly sequester the plastic and will last for several years. The ecobricks are made by placing small pieces of plastic into a water bottle until it has a density between 0.33-0.70g/mL. Packable plastics can include grocery bags, kibble food bags, Ziploc bags, clean food wrappers, certain shipping materials, and many others. These materials were collected by our team and donated by the UAB community. The mass, volume, and final density of each ecobrick was recorded. Additionally, for some ecobricks, the time spent packing was recorded. Using this data, we will be able to determine the average density of the ecobricks used in our bench, and we can find an average time based off a smaller population of data. We can also count the number of plastics donated. Our bench will repurpose many single-use plastics in a unique, yet sustainable way and ensure they will be used for years to come.
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