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August Updates

Dear Envirocare Coordinators and Go Green Champions,

This month we are sharing details of a Regenerative solution to plastic pollution. We do not need machines, special skills, or capital to enable us to take personal responsibility for the plastic that we have consumed. A simple yet innovative idea is Ecobricks, which enriches our communities by harnessing a creative team spirit as we collectively have a social impact.

“Let’s be the change we want to see. Let’s see problems as opportunities. Let’s turn trash into treasure and pollutions to solutions!”

– Russell Maier (regenerative designer and leader of Ecobrick movement in Indonesia and around the world).

A regenerative inspiration from South Africa
The EcoBricks’ Challenge!

2020 marks the 95th year of the advent of Sathya Sai Baba. Sathya Sai Centres across South Africa – Zone 9A, Region 92 – have united with the shared goal of caring for the local and global biosphere. They have announced the EcoBricks’ Challenge to celebrate the birth of the Divine Avatar. Each Sathya Sai Centre is offering 95 Ecobricks to our beloved Lord by 23rd November 2020 and will continue this creative endeavour going forward. Devotees from all Wings are making vibrant efforts to drastically reduce plastic waste.

“Plastic articles have exposed man to great dangers. The plastic bags and other articles have created enormous waste material which is not biodegradable. Even if you bury it underground, it does not decompose and remains as it is even after many years. Much land is being spoiled by this plastic waste. Vegetables grown in such land are harmful to man. In this way, many harmful changes have crept in the life of man today.” – Divine Discourse, Sai Kulwant Hall, 22 August 2007.

Why make Ecobricks?

The act of ecobricking raises awareness of how much plastic we consume daily and acknowledges the harm that plastic consumption has had on the biosphere. When we save, segregate, and stuff all sorts of non-recyclable plastics to the brim of plastic bottles, we effectively secure it from degrading into toxins and micro-plastics. More plastic and CO2 are sequestered rather than released to poison the Earth, air and water.

How do you make an Ecobrick?

Learn the best practices, methods, and principles of Ecobricks’ making and building here!

Hands on experience with Ecobricks!

Ecobricks can help to build furniture, gardens, play parks, bricks and more. We can build mindfully with Ecobricks – your imagination is the limit! South Africa are working to implement transformative innovations including:

- Garden boxes at the Sathya Sai School and Drift Primary School in Durban, KwaZulu-Natal.
- Shoe racks in the Western Cape.
- Garden walls at the Heuweloord Sai Centre in Guateng.

Sathya Sai Baba says, “Tread softly, move reverentially and utilise gratefully.”