Recycled bottle cap art

A community collects 7,000-8,000 plastic bottle caps to create a visual reminder about the power of recycling at Central Valley Elementary, By Nancy Kriz CENTRAL VALLEY - “Going green” is epitomized in the brilliantly colored hues of an eleven-foot by eight-foot butterfly mural at Central Valley Elementary School, representing a school community’s imaginative and artistic plastic bottle cap recycling efforts. The project - spearheaded by Tuxedo resident Mariah Malone for her Girl Scout Gold Award project - was completed late last month, just in time for outgoing fifth-graders to see the results of the school’s yearlong effort. It uses between 7,000 and 8,000 plastic bottle caps and lids of all sizes to decorate a vibrant and dimensional wall hanging that all 650 students in four grade levels had a part in creating. In late spring of last year, the Central Valley PTA became aware of the work of Ohio-based artist Michelle Stitzlein, who uses recycled materials in her artwork, and visits schools to do workshops and lectures about recycling and ways students can create art using bottle caps. Tina Edel, the school’s PTA cultural arts coordinator, said the PTA thought the idea of creating a mural for the school building using bottle caps was a wonderful way to involve the entire school while teaching students about recycling and reusing materials. But the project would be an enormous one and need volunteer leadership, with organizers estimating it would take a full school year to complete. With the bottle cap mural plan endorsed by Principal Dr. Eric Hassler and Doreen Jaffee, the school’s art teacher, PTA officials started the planning process. Last fall, students and their families were asked to collect bottle caps of all colors and sizes. They responded with thousands of caps from all types of products: Soda, seltzer, water, juice, shampoo and laundry detergent as well as plastic lids from items like peanut butter jars and cream cheese. Central Valley is 'my school’ As luck would have it, PTA officials learned Stitzlein would be in northern New Jersey for her annual visit to her family this past April. She already had plans to visit a school in Butler, N.J. Through a contact at that school, the PTA was able to arrange for Stitzlein visit Central Valley last April 28. “We definitely wanted her to come and do a presentation to the entire school,” said Edel. “And it was Eric’s idea to say maybe there was a Girl Scout who could help create piece of work and take ownership of this project.” Malone, an Ambassador Girl Scout who loves art, attended Central Valley and is now a junior at Monroe-Woodbury High School, was happy to take on the project. “Recycling is really important,” said Malone, adding this experience reinforced her desire to become an elementary school teacher. “It’s important to teach kids when they’re really young so it becomes a lifetime habit. I went to Central Valley. It’s 'my’ school and so I was all for doing this.” With hundreds of caps arriving weekly from the school’s families, Malone led students and family volunteers in washing them and sorting them by size and color. Create art, not landfills “What I loved was that everyone was involved,” said Edel, noting there were large numbers of parent volunteers also assisting. “It involved months of collecting caps. There were even stores in the community helping us, like Jay’s Deli in Highland Mills. These were all caps not ending up in a landfill.” Jaffee, the art teacher, created the butterfly mural design. In April, Malone took Jaffee’s drawing and led a team of volunteers to sketch and eventually paint it with vivid colors onto large pieces of plywood donated by the district’s Buildings and Grounds Department. It was then ready for Stitzlein’s visit which officially launched students’ efforts to “cap” the mural using drills and special screws. “We were able to embrace our Going Green initiative into this project,” said Hassler, the school’s principal. “The great thing was to have the artist visit and talk to the kids. This project has really left a lasting mark on the school.” During Stitzlein’s visit and later in May, classes were scheduled to work on the mural. Teams of four to six students worked laying out colored caps and, helped by Malone or parent volunteers, drilled caps into the mural using cordless drills. New definitions for the 3 Rs For most kids, it was the first time using a drill, giving them a huge sense of empowerment. “We got to hold the drill and press the buttons,” said Sophia Guglielmello of Highland Mills, now a third-grader. “We learned how to screw the caps onto the board. I screwed caps onto the red and purple and brown and green and blue painted areas. It was fun doing it and when we hung it up, we all said, 'Wow, we all did that.’” Malone said students were thrilled with their group accomplishment. “They saw with one only small bottle cap and a drill, out of that came a piece of art that everyone can be proud of,” said Malone. “Working together taught them teamwork. It’s really nice to see a kid walk by it and say, 'Hey, I did that. Look what I did, Mom.’ I think their parents enjoy hearing that.” Now, there’s a permanent, visual reminder about the power of recycling.

They learned about the three Rs: Reduce, reuse, recycle. They saw how much they took out of a landfill and made something really beautiful. This was a labor of love. Working with kids and art is really great. But doing something you love with something important like recycling, that just adds to it.” Mariah Malone of Tuxedo, who coordinated the project for her Girl Scout Gold Award project.

Bottle cap art
Watch the YouTube video of Central Valley students learning about the project at www.youtube.com/watch?v=CtG0202WlYc
To learn more about artist Michelle Stitzlein and her book, “ Bottlecap Little Bottlecap,” visit www.artgrange.com/LittleBottlecap.html

Why is recycling plastic caps such a difficult process?
The instructions for recycling a typical plastic beverage bottle often say to put the plastic bottle in the recycling bin and put the cap in the trash. According to www.CapsCanDo.org, that’s because the bottle caps are made from a different material than the bottles themselves, a plastic called #5 (PP) or polypropylene.
Beverage bottles are typically made from Polyethylene Terephthalate (PET) or plastic #1. Bottles for detergents, personal care and other household products are commonly made of High Density Polyethylene (HDPE) or plastic #2.
So, caps need to be separated from the bottles and usually end up in a landfill. Additionally, the small cap size can make them difficult to sort out from the other plastic pieces. While metal caps could easily be separated using a strong magnet, the plastic caps are not so simple.
Because of this, recycling facilities for bottle caps are not widely available nationwide, so the little plastic caps - one of the least commonly recycled items - often end up as litter, where they can become a big problem.
Little caps floating in the water can look like an easy meal for a wide variety of wildlife, from fish and sea turtles to marine birds. Even in a landfill, plastic caps still pose a threat to animals such as seagulls, which scavenge through the masses of trash looking for food.
Most plastic products are designed to last. It can take hundreds or even thousands of years for plastic containers to decompose, said the Web site. - Nancy Kriz