HINSDALE, Ill. (WLS) — ABC7’s Tracy Butler first sat down with Kellie O’Brien of Hinsdale, more than a decade ago.

“I’m not an architect, I’m not a teacher, in fact I wasn’t even privileged enough to go to college. But I knew that this village needed a school. And so then i took an envelope out of my purse and we designed our first classroom on the back of an envelope,” O’Brien said to Tracy back in 2011.

From paper to reality, her idea came to life as the O’Brien School for the Maasai in Sanya Station, Tanzania.

The private school O’Brien founded, has been around for 17 years, transforming the lives of young children and their families.

“Everything has come from the good hearts of the people around us,” said O’Brien, now 82 years old. The local horticulturalist who was born on a farm in suburban Crestwood sat back down with Tracy to talk about the school. It’s certainly grown in size. But not through traditional construction means.

The school started using discarded plastic bottles to build more classrooms and a reception house, after connecting with a global nonprofit.

“This really hit home to me because all the years that I have been going to Tanzania, I see the litter of water bottles lining the streets, the piles getting higher,” said O’Brien. “There was no program for recycling water bottles.”

“People don’t trust the water supply, so that’s why everybody drinks bottled water,” said Smiley Hsu, a volunteer and board member for the nonprofit Bottles2Bricks.

Hsu is based in Florida but O’Brien learned about the group through its co-founder Lori Ward of Clarendon Hills.

At the time, the group had already been constructing schools and libraries out of recycled water bottles in Cameroon where plastic waste is a problem as well.

“The thinking was – can we turn this problem into a solution,” said Hsu. “We found this incredible technology where you fill the bottles with soil or sand and convert them into bricks and we use these as bricks to build buildings.”

It takes about 15,000 bottles or a few truckloads worth of bottles to build a couple of classrooms, according to Hsu.

And they’re built to last.

“As you may know, plastic bottles have a life span of 500 plus years before they degrade,” said Hsu.

But their efforts go beyond teaching the community how to build.

“We’re creating jobs, we are creating hope. We are also cleaning the environment,” said Hsu.

And on the side of the school’s reception house remains exposed plastic bottles in the shape of the African Baobob Tree – a reminder of what they built together.

“We have a building made of recycled water bottles, and I just my heart was smiling everyday,” said O’Brien.

The engineering behind Bottles2Bricks was first created by German Ecologist Andreas Froese. He and his wife lived in a house made of plastic bottles for 25 years in Jamé, Coahuila – in Northern Mexico. And it’s still standing, despite earthquakes, storms, and other extreme weather.

The widows of the Massai community also help raise money for the school through sales of their handmade jewelry. You can learn more about the O’Brien School the Maasai on their website.

To help support or volunteer with Bottles2Bricks, click here.