QC Students Divert Trash from Local Landfills, Create Work of Art for their School
Project Made Possible by Grant from Waste Commission of Scott County
Plastic bottle caps are one of the top 10 items found during marine debris clean-ups and are the second most littered item after cigarette butts. Thanks to a grant from the Waste Commission of Scott County, Rivermont Collegiate students in Bettendorf are doing something about that!
Rivermont students in Kindergarten through 12th Grade, under the direction of Visual Art Teacher Colleen Tomlinson, have created a 6' x 8' Collaborative Bottle Cap Mural, which will be displayed at the school. Over 2,300 plastic caps were repurposed in the mural and diverted from local landfills! The project was made possible by an educational grant from the Waste Commission of Scott County.
The collaborative project took place from August 2013 through April 2014. As the entire Rivermont Community (students, parents, faculty, and staff) collected plastic bottle caps (pop bottles, laundry detergent, yogurt cups, shampoo bottles, etc.) students saw firsthand how quickly small items of trash accumulate, even within a small school community. At the same time, students explored how artists use trash as a medium to encourage environmental awareness and change. From graphing the variety of bottle cap colors collected to studying contemporary artists who repurpose trash, the project not only spanned Kindergarten through 12th Grade, but also across disciplines.
The mural theme was inspired by Regionalism and Midwest landscapes created by Grant Wood. It will be permanently displayed at Rivermont. In fact, students have enough leftover bottle caps that they have started a second mural!
For additional information, contact: Brittany Marietta - Rivermont Collegiate - (563) 359-1366 ext. 308 or marietta@rvmt.org
