Resourceful Year 7, Florence M, has launched a new school sustainability initiative to turn plastic bottle tops into materials for the classroom.
According to research by the United Nations, plastic is now the largest contributor of marine pollution (85%), with 36% of this consisting of plastic packaging. Motivated by a desire to make a change, Florence, decided to take matters into her own hands by placing plastic bottle top collection bins around the school. The collected bottle tops are then separated into colours and melted down during DT lessons to create new products such as keyrings, coasters, and fridge magnets.
Florence said: “There is so much plastic that gets dumped in the ocean, but nothing really seems to be happening about it”, says Florence. “We decided we needed to start raising awareness about this around school, and asked people to donate bottle tops so that we could make something out of them and save them from landfill”.
The project has not only inspired creativity with the pupils but has also helped them to be more waste-conscious and realise recycling possibilities.
She continued: “The response has been brilliant, loads of people have donated bottle tops which is great! Some people have even donated other small plastic items, such as chewing gum containers. We hope to continue the project and maybe open a charity stall of our creations in aide of Climate Crisis Week later in the year.”
At the Senor School, a similar initiative is already in place, with collection points placed in central locations across the school for pupils and staff to drop off bottle tops and crisp packets which are then used for DT, Art and Textiles projects. Previous projects have included a raincoat made from crisp packets and jewellery repurposed and remodeled from unrecyclable plastic.
