Vision

The idea behind murals made with bottle caps is to raise awareness among students and the community about ecological and environmental problems that we face.

Action

We collected bottle caps to encourage people to recycle. We used the bottle caps to make four murals. Last year, we decided to take on this project because we found that bottles often get put into the recycling bins, but the bottle caps are often littered in the school yard, and neighbouring streets as kids walk to and from school — or the bottle caps are thrown directly into the garbage. Since last year when I introduced and talked to students about making murals using bottle caps, and our school and community began collecting bottle caps — the support from the student body and community has been tremendous. I found students that I don’t even teach came up to me and gave me their bottle caps when they saw me or are collecting them at home and bringing them to school to put in colour corresponding bins that we have in locations in the school to collect bottle caps. We have bins at the front entrance of the school and in the East Wing. We added some bins for bottle caps also in the cafeteria this new school year. Last June and this April, during Earth Day during community clean-ups — I had students saving bottle caps that they found while cleaning up a nearby beach and surrounding neighbourhood. Even though our official collection has ended, we still have people dropping them off at the school. We plan to use them for other projects.

Students created designs. Then students hot-glued bottle caps onto Dibond. Then students reinforced the bottle caps with screws using electric drills. Xavier Junior High School students in my art and social studies classes completed four finished murals that have been attached to the exterior of the school in a green outdoor learning space that we are currently developing.

Reflection & Celebration

These four bottle cap murals were made by students at Xavier Junior High School during the 2022-2023 school year with approximately 1,736 recycled plastic bottle caps. Art and social studies students not only designed the murals but also attached the bottle caps to construct these art pieces. Students, families, staff and community members collected over 15,088 bottle caps during this project! Students were inspired in the spring of 2022 to take on this project after learning about art made of recyclable items.

By recycling plastic bottle caps, we helped to reduce pollution and protect our environment. Students also learned about the connection between single-use plastics and climate change. Xavier Junior High School students learned how to value and incorporate recycled items such as bottle caps into art. We plan to make other things out of the other collected bottle caps. We also plan to use some to fill planters at our school to act as drainage in the planters and avoid the planters becoming overly heavy to lift with soil.

At the official opening of our outdoor learning space that is being developed, these murals will be recognized. Pictures have been posted to social media like the school’s Facebook page.

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