PET bottles school project

CEBU, Philippines - Have you ever realized it only takes three to four minutes for you to consume the contents of a PET (polyethylene terephthalate) bottle, but 700 years for the latter to break down — without degrading fully from the ecosystem?

Here’s the real message from the bottle: Race for an uncommon solution to a common problem on November 14 through the “Eco Dash: Bottle School Run” to reduce the number of PET bottles ending up in dumpsites and landfills as these can be utilized in the alternative construction of school buildings.

Through the “Bottle School Project” initiated by the My Shelter Foundation with prime mover and social entrepreneur Illac Diaz, one will come to realize that consumption of products in PET bottles has an impact on both the environment and education.

While you may start feeling guilty now that you have actually patronized products detrimental to precious resources like water and energy, you have the choice to alter the course of your supposed waste. Each PET bottle you are about to throw away, Diaz said, can be a building block in the alternative construction of schools, which is seen to cut expenses by 25 to 40 percent off the original cost.

“Eco Dash: A Bottle Run” will be held on Nov. 14 at The Terraces grounds (Ayala Center Cebu) at 5:30 a.m. Categories are 3K, 5K and 10K with a registration of P350 for the first two categories and P500 for the latter.

After constructing earthen and bamboo schools, Diaz continues to seek eco-friendly means of building more schools by adopting open technology with the use of PET bottles as well as silica, ash and lime (these are the building blocks of adobe churches constructed by Spanish architects and engineers). With the proven strength and staying power of bricks, Diaz said, we have to take up this technology again.

True to the vision-mission of My Shelter Foundation, Diaz aims to create a system of sustainability and reliability through its capability-building and employment generating projects. It is one of the strengths of the foundation to find innovative solutions to mitigate the ill effects of climate change through sustainable, eco-friendly, low-cost, disaster-resistant structures.

Aside from silica, ash and lime, human hair found to break down in 300 years but never also fully degenerating off the Earth’s surface like plastic, is added to reinforce strength. “Kesa naman itapon lang at maging pollutant, we use hair. Alam natin na keratin is the key structural component of hair which is tough and insoluble. Sinlakas ng steel bar, so hair is a good alternative,” Diaz explained.

“This is an uncommon solution to a common problem,” Diaz also said. “Come to think of it, you drink contents of a PET bottle for, say, three to four minutes. Pagkatapos, it takes 700 years for the plastic to disintegrate at kung mangyari man yun, it will never completely degenerate from the ecosystem.”

“Pero if we give the bottle a second life, considering the precious resources used to produce it, it wouldn’t go to waste. Na-address pa natin yung mga challenges na kaakibat ng extreme weather [patterns],” Diaz added.

Through the Eco Dash, consumers will be able to collaborate in the building of the country’s first bottle school. All they have to do is bring two PET bottles (either 1.5-liter or 2-liter) of any brand. Registration sites are at the Ayala Center Cebu Concierge or at Ayala tenants Runner, ROX and Planet Sports. Two PET bottles are equal to one parking coupon on the day of the run. This is sponsored by My Shelter, Insular Life, Pepsi, Ericsson, Ayala Malls and extendyourself.org.

While it was observed that a number of runs were organized beforehand here without clear results as to how the claimed cause-oriented activities were handled, Eco Dash organizers commit to the construction of a building for Bantayan Island’s School of the SEAS (Sea and Earth Advocates) founded by environmental lawyer, earth activist, and Ramon Magsaysay laureate Antonio “Tony” Oposa, Jr. This would serve as a pioneering bottle school project in the Visayas.

“We have to make miracles out of the basic of materials. Remember that there is not enough resource to produce these materials in our world. Tsaka this is an opportunity to create a culture among people na kapag plastic manghihinayang silang itapon,” Diaz said, pointing out that, “kasi maiisip nila ‘pwede tayong magtayo ng school gamit ang plastic bottles katulad ng sa Cebu’.”

As for Oposa, he finds the project a stimulus for the Cebuano community to “remove waste from their mental vocabulary.”

“There are a lot of so-called cause-oriented runs. However, the real work starts not at the beginning of the race, but after the finish line!” Oposa emphasized.

“The bottle school run is a sustainable and empowered system that can be replicated anywhere in the country (referred to as “viral solution”) and we just need you to help us start it right here in Cebu. If before, you run for a singlet, for time, for a cause, then this time run for something different, for a solution that can change the world. The purest form of helping is to make yourself obsolete,” the organizers concluded.

Polyethylene terephthalate is one of the most commonly used food grade packaging plastics because of its chemical inertness and appealing physical properties initiating its rapid adoption as a material for beverage bottles (soda, alcoholic drinks, purified water) and other consumer goods like detergents, cosmetics, pharmaceutical products, and edible oils.

PET bottle pollution occurs when the latter are not collected and recycled properly as these end up clogging dumpsites or landfills (taking up lots of space). Problem persists as these do not rot fast and fully. PET bottles also take a lot of oil to make. Therefore, their production intensifies global warming.