Hien Tam Pham reaches under her bed and pulls out a box full of plastic. After gathering empty water bottles from her roommates, she stows them away in her collection.

Pham, a chemical engineering sophomore, collects plastic anywhere she can for Texas Ecobricks, a branch of Texas Undergraduate Chemical Engineering Women. She recently became sustainability chair for UChEW, putting her in charge of Texas Ecobricks. 

“It’s kind of how I live now,” Pham said. “Everytime I see any clean plastic from my home or from my friends, I snatch it and put it under my bed.” 

Since its creation in 2019, Texas Ecobricks holds monthly socials where students gather and create ecobricks together. Becky Labra, former sustainability chair for UChEW, said the building process includes cutting clean plastics into little pieces and stuffing them into a plastic bottle with a dowel until it reaches the appropriate density. Lindsey Moffett, a chemical engineering senior and Texas Ecobricks member, said ecobricks help eliminate plastic from the waste stream. 

However, the process doesn’t stop there. Moffett said bricks must be registered with the international ecobrick organization to be official. 

“(Texas Ecobricks) makes you more conscious of how much plastic you’re using because you’re collecting it personally,” Moffett said. “That’s the biggest part: personal awareness.” 

Through social media outreach, Texas Ecobricks receives outside support from people eager to help with plastic collection. Labra, a chemical engineering senior, said the organization receives contributions from people both on campus and throughout Austin.

“We’ve had people that aren’t even students (who have) brought ecobricks to us either (already) made or brought their plastic,” Labra said. 

Labra said during the COVID-19 pandemic Texas Ecobricks countered obstacles to its hands-on activities by facilitating virtual connections via their Instagram page and YouTube channel. Now, Texas Ecobricks continues to expand, Labra said, even impacting communities off campus. 

“We’ve had elementary schools reach out to us like, ‘We want to start this with our students. Do you have any resources for us?’ So we’ll send them videos, flyers or whatever they need,” Labra said.  

Texas Ecobricks maintains a larger goal of educating people on environmental and social causes, Moffett said. Once the group collects enough ecobricks, they aim to build a structure for the University.

“(UT is) a relatively large school, and over time, if membership increases and more ecobricks can be made, … I want to use it in a larger scope instead of just building something decorative,” Pham said.

Labra said members of Texas Ecobricks share a passion for sustainability and engineering, sharing a common goal to instill more environmentally friendly practices on campus.  

“The project is cool, and we want to build something, but the idea behind sustainability and the impact that it has on a community … and becoming more self-aware of sustainable practices is what we want to push for,” Labra said. “That’s what we want to highlight.”