As the 80 kg of plastic gathered per month through our segregation and collection programme mounts up in our garage, the problem of what to do with it became critical. Last year we were able to deliver the collected plastic to the PWD who were using it in their road making, but since their machine broke down we have had no-where to take it.
But now, at last, we have made a machine for making compacted plastic bricks! 
Based on a design which we got from the internet from a project in Haiti by Harvey Lacey , with the help of our intelligent and helpful blacksmith and a car manufacturer from Jullundur who produced the screw rod, it works! We sew down cement or animal feed bags to the correct size to fit into the machine. The bags are stuffed very firmly with the collected clean soft plastic waste. This waste is what makes up the majority of what is lying around on the road sides and in the fields and ditches as practically everything else is either eaten by birds and animals or collected by the rag pickers because it can be re-cycled.
Mohinder is pushing the stuffed bag into the machine – then they close the lid and Vijay turns the screw to compress the bag. When they open the machine the bag is only 1 foot long. It is then firmly tied with wire. Each brick weighs about a kilo so if we expect to make around 80 bricks a month from our immediate village waste.
We will use these bricks as wall filling in construction of stores or boundary walls. They will be packed firmly between vertical columns and sealed on both sides with plaster on chicken wire netting. We will keep you updated on how this work is going on!
