Pura Vida!

“Pura Vida” is a phrase used a lot in Central America. It’s Costa Rica’s national motto and can be heard more frequently than “freedom” in the US. The phrase “pura vida” literally means “pure life”, but the meaning is closer to “full of life,” “purified life,” “this is living,” “going great,” or “cool!” An organization by the same name teaches villagers to compact clean, dry plastic trash into used plastic bottles, thereby converting waste into easily-storable and transportable “plastic bricks” for construction. Below is an image of these plastic bricks creating the insulation/foundation of a building in Guatemala.

Basically, they collected used plastic bottles and stuffed them full of assorted other plastic waste — from plastic shopping bags to snack wrappers — then stacked them within a wire framework. The spaces between bottles were stuffed with more plastic bags, then cement was smeared over it all, creating a surface similar to any other wall. The best part, of course, is the massive amount of waste used. In one project in Granados, Guatemala building a small schoolhouse, they couldn’t find any more plastic waste in the community and had to go to neighboring villages to collect some of theirs!

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