A big thank you to the hundreds of UK ecobrickers who have been helping us validate a backlog of tens of thousands on ecobricks on GoBrik! We've now caught up-- over 90% are now authenticated. This valuable in a whole bunch of ways! First, our stats are now way stronger. The fact that almost 30,000 ecobricks have now been peer reviewed as to whether their plastic has been properly packed, means that we can now confidently claim to have collectively secured 6,738 Kg of plastic from the environment. Second, the process of review has provided invaluable feedback to those getting started ecobricking. Yes, it can be a little depressing having your ecobrick rejected, but given the helpful feedback that accompanied it, we find that most rise to the challenge, improve their ecobricking. And finally, now that the backlog has been chopped down, rather than months of delay between logging and getting feedback, we’re now down to days and hours!
Back when I first discovered ecobricking as a means to take care of my plastic, I observed that the schools and communities that I shared ecobricking with, were far more likely to succeed if they kept track of the ecobricks coming in. Back then, that meant a clipboard and pen, with the teachers recording weight, name, volume and date. These schools then had the numbers to share their success and keep track of their plastic transition. This meant that their ecobricking didn’t fade as a fad… but rather become part of deep plastic awakening and transition. I just got some amazing photos of the food forest play park that one of these schools built six years ago. Its still going strong and so is their ecobricking (although there is less plastic to ecobrick now).
Again, thank you to all of you who have braved our buggy beta app, helped us with your error reports, and assisted us not only get through the back log, but refine our authentication system dramatically. Remember when it used to take 2 minutes to process a validation? Now our system is wayyy smoother!
Not only has our team been improving the system, we’ve also been building the conceptual infrastructure behind it. Stay tuned, shortly we’ll be releasing our Ecobrick & Brikcoin whitepaper. We are observing around the world that ecobricks are not only a way to secure plastic ‘waste’ but have the profoundly exciting potential as the foundation for a medium of exchange.
