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Jul 12, 2011

"It is the marriage of the soul with nature that makes the intellect fruitful, and gives birth to imagination." --Henry David Thoreau

A Creative Use of Plastic Bottles

When former Peace Corps volunteer Laura Kutner was asked to help find funding to finish constructing two classrooms in the elementary school where she worked in Guatemala, she decided to use -- or rather reuse -- a common piece of trash. Kutner used what was known in environment-friendly circles as "eco-blocks" -- plastic bottles stuffed with inorganic trash -- and encased them in chicken wire. Once covered in a few layers of cement, the bottles provided cost-efficient and eco-friendly insulation for the classroom's walls. "They stay cooler than traditionally built schools and have even inspired new community initiatives to find everyday solutions to trash management," Kutner said.