What We Do 

Collection of Litter 

The World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) estimated that South Africans, on average, use between 30kg to 50kg of plastic per person per year. This problem is worse in many South African and African townships which are drowning in waste due to a lack of trash collection services. Our aim is to mobilise communities to take responsibility of their own trash collection by collecting and turning plastic waste into eco-bricks that can be used for construction, in gardens and furniture. Waste pickers and community members are trained in how to collect, sort and clean plastic bottles and plastic waste which will be used to make eco-bricks. The following actions will be taken:

1. Stop dumping waste in rivers, streets and open fields

2. Organise eco-bins to be placed at street corners to avoid littering in the streets

3. Arrange with waste pickers to sort plastic bottles & plastic waste to be repurposed into eco-bricks

4. Waste pickers and community members involved in waste collection will be paid a stipend


Eco-Brick Making

We mobilise communities to get involved in eco-brick making. Eco- bricks are made using cleaned and dry plastic or filling with fine sand. Quality control forms part of critical process of eco-brick making:

We target mostly women and youth to receive training on how to make the bricks and sale them to organisations that use them for construction.

Donations & Funding 

Eco-bricks are used for construction of various buildings including classrooms, houses, and furniture. Such buildings are cost effective, well insulated and fire resistant.  We therefore encourage everyone in their homes to start repurposing plastic by making eco-bricks and donate them to our organisation. We accept empty plastic bottles, plastic litter or readymade eco-bricks. We are currently working with individuals, schools and organisations who are making and donating Eco- bricks. It is very important that everyone gets involved in combating plastic pollution which contributes to global warming, like Covid 19 pandemic, climate change negative impact affects everyone in the world. We therefore appeal to everyone to join in the eco-brick movement as a way of reducing plastic litter that is dumped in our environment. We accept donations of 2litre eco-bricks weighing 650 grams for our projects. The following are types of plastic that are suitable for eco-brick making:

We also appeal for financial support as such funds are used to sponsor our training programs, payment of stipends to our waste pickers and eco-brick makers , transport to collect donated eco-bricks ,as well as for purchasing of building materials.


Training Skills & Development

ETF prides itself in providing communities with the skills and training that empowers them to create their own employment. We therefore focus on providing both soft and technical training targeting women and youth. Our training programs covers:


Volunteer's Day