Bottle Schools

Communities working together to upcycle "waste" trash into eco-friendly schools

Leaflet about bottle schools | Media Pack

Hug It Forward works to support and empower communities in Guatemala to build Bottle Schools: schools built using plastic soda bottles and other non-biodegradable trash.

Since October 2009, 15 communities across Guatemala have come together to build their own bottle school! In the process they have not only cleaned their environment of trash, they have empowered a generation of kids who have built their school with their own hands.

More communities are ready to build bottle schools - they have collected bottles and stuffed them with trash to make "eco-bricks" - but they don't have the funds. By making use of "waste" materials and the volunteer labor of the entire village coming together, and thanks to our 100% model, bottle schools cost just $5,000 per classroom on average. Your donation goes a long way in Guatemala!

Why build bottle schools?

Bottle School projects have many benefits, 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

Insulating walls with plastic bottles stuffed with inorganic trash was pioneered in Guatemala by the organization Pura Vida. Instead of the common cinder-block walls used in Central America, “eco-bricks” are stacked in between chicken wire, and covered in cement. The bottles are used solely as insulation; the buildings are supported by professionally built, structurally sound frames. This method of construction is both eco-friendly and economical, and independent structural analysis has testified to the strength and safety of the buildings.

In our first project in Granados, Guatemala, in October 2009, over 5,000 plastic bottles were used to build two classrooms, containing 2053lbs of trash and using 9720lbs of cement. 297 children and youth currently attend the school, which serves a municipality of 13,860 people throughout 95.75 square miles.

Our vision is to enable communities across the world to build bottle schools, wherever there is a need. We curate the Bottle School Manual, an online step-by-step guide to building a bottle school. It's a wiki, so anybody can edit it and it's continually evolving - take a look, see what you think, and help us make it better!

If you or your community or organization would like to build a bottle school, great!!! See more info on how to build a bottle school in your community.