I recently came across a non-profit that is doing great construction work for communities in need of schools. The Bottle School Project, by Hug It Forward, built their first school in 2009. The idea is to bring education to poor communities while cleaning up the environment. According to Hug It Forward there are many benefits to this program including:

• Providing much needed educational infrastructure for poorer communities
• Cleaning the streets of non-biodegradable trash
• Teaching environmental awareness, recycling and proper trash management
• Fostering community leadership
• Teaching new skills that can be used to gain employment or on other community projects
• Spending capital within the local community where the school is being built
• Giving kids ownership of the school, because they build it with their own hands
• Uniting communities, they come together as one during the project

Instead of using the common block construction, bottle schools use the non-biodegradable trash to construct and insulate the walls. Plastic bottles (found in excess) are filled with trash that would otherwise be scattered around the community.

The structure of a bottle school is not the bottles. Carpenters first frame the building while the kids and volunteers in the community gather bottles. The bottles serve to insulate the building and clean up the area.

The first bottle school project was completed out of 5,000 plastic bottles and over a ton of trash. The success of that project sparked interest in doing the same in nearby communities. In the past 2 years Hug It Forward has built 12 bottle schools with 4 more in progress.

Read more on their website: hugitforward.com or bottleschools.com