AmenZen shares his passion and love for our planet through a variety of ways. As a permaculturist, AmenZen feels inspired by all the solutions available at our fingertips. His background includes numerous projects in waste reduction including managing the first apartment building in Columbia that lowered the waste management fees and reinvested the savings in the social responsibility of paying good wages to recyclers. AmenZen is a permaculture educator focusing on transforming "trash" into a viable bioconstruction technology. Since 2004, he continues to live a "trash" free life and does not participate in the public garbage collection systems. 
View AmenZen's Resume
View AmenZen's story of how he found Bottle Bricks

Lindsay Hassett, MBA, MA (40MPG) aka Betty Biodiesel found out about bottle bricks from world renowned permaculturist, Max Meyers. He showed her how to stuff her trash in a bottle and she was never the same since. She got so excited about this new zero waste hobby and passion that she made a website, named the peace bench project and got her roommate to start dealing with her "trash". Hopeful for the future, Lindsay is committed to seeing peace benches being installed at schools around the US and eventually the middle east. This way of dealing with our trash is innovative, inspiring and super yummy when you make organic pizzas in the cob oven atop the bottle brick bench.

Brennan Blazer Bird is a recent UC Davis graduate with a B.A. degree in Nature & Culture. He is currently working as an ecological educator in the Bay Area, teaching students in East Palo Alto and Oakland about sustainability issues. Brennan is leading a project to build a cob bench on the UC Davis Baggins End Innovative Housing property (the Domes) that will use bottle bricks as a critical building component.

Brennan first learned about bottle bricks from Erecicleje at the Harmony Festival in 2009. He was so moved that it literally changed his life. While in Ghana later that summer, working with the non-profit International School of Art, Business, and Technology, he decided to test out the bricks and build a bench at the school they were working at. There is video of the project here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mdcvHA-cgA4 (they used concrete to build the bench because there was a concrete church being built next door and they had all the concrete and labor on hand).

Brennan is currently leading a Zero Waste Lunch program at the Chabot Space and Science Center, is a Garden Educator with Collective Roots in East Palo Alto, and is interning with the Environmental Laboratory for Sustainability and Ecological Education (ELSEE) in San Jose. He also volunteers for the Sustainable Living Roadshow and the Oakland Neighborhood Ecocenter (ONE), helping them develop a zero waste program on-site. Brennan has convinced every organization he is involved with to build a bottle brick bench for peace!