The need for a classroom at Khensani’s Collection, an education organisation in Soweto, led to the creation of the Earthly Touch Foundation’s eco-brick movement in 2020. Pupils were receiving extra lessons in an overcrowded zinc classroom, but there was no money for building a new facility. The eco-brick movement provided a solution, while motivating the residents to clean up their environment by collecting waste plastic and empty PET bottles and upcycling them into eco-bricks, which were used to build a classroom. This project saw more than 1 000 people trained and involved in making the bricks. It has had a knock-on effect, inspiring the establishment of similar initiatives in Botswana, Zambia and Zimbabwe. The eco-brick movement aims to create a circular economy to reduce the effect of climate change. It has been involved in three big projects. In 2020, seven tonnes of plastic were made into eco-bricks, which were used to construct another classroom. In 2023, classrooms were constructed using 72 000 eco-bricks, diverting 33 tonnes of plastic waste from the environment and, in 2024, 30 000 eco-bricks were collected for an early childhood development centre planned for Diepsloot. In addition, the project’s development initiatives uplift women and youths, creating employment through recycling and upcycling. It also encourages producers and users of plastic to look at products that are environmentally friendly and to come up with solutions to lessen the effect of global warming.
Greatest achievements
- Trained about 1 000 people to clean the environment and use waste plastic to make eco-bricks.
- Thirty temporary jobs have been created.
- Sanitation has been provided to more than 400 people using eco-toilets built at our centre.
- Classrooms have been provided to 100 students who use the facility for extra lessons.
- A training room for 60 pregnant women and teens who use the facility for antenatal and post-natal training has been made available.
- A roof rainwater harvesting system was installed at the centre, which provides drinking water to about 400 people, including our students.
- Community gardens have been established at the centre.
- About 50 tonnes of carbon emissions have been avoided in the environment from the three projects.
What advice would you give to future generations?
Global warming is a reality and its effect is being felt everywhere on Earth. We must all come together to save the planet for future generations. We are responsible for cleaning up the pollution that we have created. There will be no clean air, nature to enjoy, productive land to grow our food and clean water to drink if we don’t act now.