Especially if you're susceptible to optimistic reggae (I am!), this video of kids helping to build their own school out of bottles and trash ought to make you a little misty. It shows three months of work on a Hug It Forward "bottle school," from the collection of raw materials (kids fill plastic bottles with trash to act as insulation in the school's walls) to the construction (members of the local community learn skilled labor while helping to build the school's framework).
A bottle school can incorporate over a ton of trash, cleaning up the area while enriching the community and providing a place for learning. The labor is unpaid, but local volunteers gain community investment and construction skills — plus, a volunteer-driven organization, combined with trash-sourced building material, means that Hug It Forward can build a two-room schoolhouse for about $12,000.
