Yogyakarta Recycles Plastic Wastes into Building Material

Yogyakarta's Environment Agency - aided by the help of private donors Russel Maier, Ani Himawati, and the Independent Recycler Networks - plans to utilise plastic waste by recycling them into environmentally-friendly bricks, called ecobricks.

"Plastic waste is one of the hardest problems to tackle," said the Sub-Division Head of Recycling for Yogyakarta's Environmental Agency (BLH) Faizah, in Yogyakarta on Wednesday, June 1, 2016. "Yogyakarta alone generates 240 tonnes of waste - 14 percent of which are plastic waste."

Faizah explained that plastic waste is very hard to manage because it takes between 10 to 80 years for it to naturally degrade. Improper management - such as burning - would actually cause more damage as it releases highly-toxic dioxin molecules into the atmosphere.

"As such, there needs to be a smarter, more innovative way to decrease the volume of plastic waste, and to manage the plastic waste that are still being generated - and turning them plastic waste into an environmentally-friendly building materials is one of such initiative," said Faizah.

To make the ecobricks, plastic waste that has already been cleaned and dried is compacted into a plastic bottle. One 600 milliliter bottle can be filled with approximately 250 grams of plastic waste - which is equivalent to 2,500 instant noodles plastic packaging.

Yogyakarta's BLH have already socialised the initiative since March 2016, and local residents have produced around 6,000 ecobricks, which are now used for a variety of purposes - for example, furnitures, as well as educational toys for children.

"It's versatile, and it's really easy to use - all it takes is some silicone glue to stick these ecobricks together into the desired form," said Faizah. "Plus, it's really easy to make, as no specialised skills nor technique is required."