Last year saw the success of a hugely successful campaign initiated by Dublin pubs to get rid of or cut down on the use of plastic straws in the cities pubs. Since then they’ve managed to drastically cut the amount of single-use plastic thrown out.
Now The Bernard Shaw have launched an initiative to tackle their own waste and the household waste of their customers. Ever heard of an eco-brick?
Basically you get a 2 litre drinks bottle and gradually fill it up with the plastic packaging and other materials that are too poor quality to recycle. At the moment, these plastics must be disposed of conventionally in the black bin, sending it to the dump or an incinerator, possibly to linger for hundreds of years. An eco-brick collects these plastics and give them a use. After packing the bottle with enough of these plastics, stuffing it down, the bottle eventually becomes thick and hard, effectively turning into…a brick.
The Bernard Shaw on South Richmond Street are encouraging their customers to start creating eco-bricks at home and bringing them into the bar. In exchange for one fully completed eco-brick, you’ll get a token for a free pint. That’s all the motivation we need.
The Bernard Shaw website has details on how to go about creating an eco brick and how their promotion works. Link. When they have enough bricks, they plan on building a DJ riser, hopefully before Beatyard this Summer.
We’ve been creating our own brick at Publin HQ the last 2 weeks and we can confirm that it’s no real extra work and if anything, it makes you consider more what you buy and throw away.
It may not solve the plastic problem, but it’s a start.
