Neshaminy High School senior Allison Sperling has started a project to take used plastic and turn it into bricks that can help to build a planter in the school’s courtyard.
Sperling has dedicated the last four months to making something that has grown to be harmful to the earth into something beautiful by collecting plastic everywhere she sees it.
Wherever she sees a loose piece of plastic, she makes a point to grab it and take it home, eventually cutting up the plastic into tiny pieces to form eco-bricks.
“You take a water bottle, and you take a bunch of single-use plastic, wrappers, and anything like the plastic that comes on packaging or chip bags– anything you can crush up easily,” Sperling said. “Then you cut it up into small pieces, put it into the water bottles, and it gets really dense. It is like an actual brick, and you can build things with it.”
What inspired her to start such a beautiful project? Surprisingly, an app that almost every teenager uses— TikTok.
“I think I saw [eco-bricks] on TikTok. That is where the idea originally came from,” Sperling explained.
Sperling has high hopes that other students and clubs will join her in collecting and creating the eco-bricks. She has set up and will continue to put up boxes and bins around NHS for students to contribute to this environmentally-friendly project.
“Any single-use plastic can go in these bins, preferably without food waste,” Sperling stated.
You can help Allie in her endeavor by throwing away your plastic in these designated bins around NHS, and you, too, can take part in helping to save our beautiful planet.