The Bottle Project
I was a Peace Corps Volunteer (PCV) in Guatemala from 2009-2011, assigned to a town called Todos Santos, located in the western highlands of the country. My service was without a doubt the most important personal and professional development experience of my life. It led me to my husband Juan Luis and my dog Lito, and this shared experience became the beginning our journey together.
The project that took up the majority of my time and energy during my service was the construction of the first high school in Todos Santos. When I arrived in Todos Santos, there were two key development challenges: 1. There was no high school, and 2. The garbage dump was on the side of a mountain, contaminating a stream of water below. At the time, students who wanted to pursue their education past the U.S. equivalent of middle school had to travel 2.5 hours each way to Huehuetenango city (the closest big city) to attend private school. With family size often exceeding 5 or 6 children per household, and the cost associated with travel, study, and lodging in most cases (over $100 per student, per month), it was a near impossibility for most young people to further their education past middle school.
For over a decade before I began my service, a local organization had been advocating for the establishment of a high school in Todos Santos. When I arrived in Guatemala, there was an organization in Guatemala called Hug it Forward (HIF) that had started working with Peace Corps volunteers on ‘bottle projects.’ The concept of the bottle project was to build a structure using cement columns for structural integrity, and use recycled plastic bottles filled with inorganic trash to fill out the walls in place of cinderblocks. The funding available for bottle projects at the time became a catalyst for action by the local government, and together, we led a community-wide effort to bring the first high school to Todos Santos.
Before picture of project site.
Before picture of project site.
Before picture of project site.
Our approach prioritized reusing and recycling throughout the project construction. The school was built on an old pig farm, where we transformed dilapidated pig stalls made out of cement block into three functioning classrooms. And, alongside my counterparts in the Municipal Women’s Office, we worked with over 1,500 women in 23 organized women’s groups throughout the municipality, and over 1,000 middle school aged students over the course of ten months, to develop eco-bricks (plastic bottles filled with inorganic trash) that were used to build three of the four walls of a computer laboratory, as well as a set of four bathrooms. About 4,000 total eco-bricks were used in the construction of the computer lab classroom (~3000) and the bathrooms (~1000). We estimated those 4,000 eco-ladrillos contained approximately 250,000 plastic bags, making a significant positive impact in the community’s recycling efforts.
Bottle wall side view.
Applying the outer concrete layers.
The first classes were held at the inaugural high school in Todos Santos on January 31, 2011 and since then, the community has doubled the size of the original school and is now offering college classes there as well, through an extension program. The whole experience taught me so much, including how to be incredibly resourceful. It doesn’t always take a lot of money to create change, but it definitely takes equal parts commitment and teamwork.
“Thank you for giving us a better future!”
New eco-brick bathrooms.
New eco-brick classrooms.
I met Juan Luis about a year into my Peace Corps service, when he began working for an environmental organization in Todos Santos. He helped me in so many ways to get this project across the finish line, and I’ll always look back at that time and this project as the beginning of our journey together. While our latest projects are now focused on improving our home and building Juan’s business (La Coop Coffee Co.), one of the most important things living in Guatemala taught us was how to be resourceful; something that remains at the core of our approach to Project Makes Perfect.
Me giving a speech while wearing the local, traditional clothing.