Did you know that about sixty million plastic bottles end up in landfills every day? That is a total of twenty two billion bottles a year! It is easy to see how much plastic we waste; however, the York Suburban Green Club has been working on a project that solely uses plastic, in hopes of preventing it from ending up in a landfill.
The Green Club began planning the project in the beginning of the year, and has been working on the project for two months. The project will be entered in The Recycled Art Contest held by the York County Solid Waste Authority.
“The goal is to make an art piece made of recyclable materials. We decided that a bottle cap mosaic would be cool,” said junior Madeline McIlnay, president of Green Club. The club collected hundreds of bottle caps from students and used a total of 327 for the project.
The group chose bottle caps because they are composed of a different type of plastic. Many bottle caps either go to landfills or nature. The club plans to send the extra caps to a special recycling plant that specializes in the plastic that the bottle caps are made out of.
“The big idea of this project is to show how to recycle everyday trash. There is no need to throw away all trash. Find ways to upcycle and reuse your trash. We made an amazing art piece with old t-shirts and bottle caps. Imagine all the other things that are possible,” said McIlnay. The club wants to emphasize to students, in addition to the community, the importance of recycling and reusing items.
The entries were displayed at the City Art Gallery April 20 through April 25. Earth Day was the opening event from 6:30 to 8:30. The winning entries were displayed at the York County Solid Waste Authority’s Education Center.
Leading up to the contest, the group announced questions during morning announcements. The student body had the opportunity to answer the questions with the chance of winning a prize made by the Green Club. Also, The Green Club had a Black Out day in order to raise awareness of Earth Day and tried to save the school some energy.
This is the bottle mosaic that was created by the Green Club.