Recycle Bottle Caps

Eric Nielsen & Nichole Rose

Project Proposal: Recycling Bottle Caps with Aveda Salon

Our Plan of Action

Receptacle Placement:
We will be placing receptacles in front of the library with the cluster of bins. Another placement will be with the recycling bins by the north east door of the Shaw building. Lastly, we will place a receptacle in HWAC by the recycling bins there. These receptacles will be collected weekly and taken to Aveda Salon which is at 1298 East 900 South Salt Lake City by a member of our group. Eric Nielsen will maintain a constant campus presence through the summer because of his work on campus and summer semester classes.

Hundred Dollar Challenge:
For the hundred dollar challenge fund, we plan to use the money to either construct or purchase receptacle bins for the three buildings with appropriate signage and advertisement for this campus supported drive. We will also be participating in the Earth day celebration on Campus with a table with information about the program.

The Environmental Concern

Aveda found that a majority of plastic bottle caps do not get recycled today.
Often these caps end up as litter or trash and migrate into our rivers and oceans. Birds and other marine creatures mistake them for food with tragic results. The magnitude of this pollution problem is devastating to our oceans and wildlife. An example of this is the Plastic Garbage Patches that are gyrating in our oceans and photo-degrading the plastic into polymers that outnumber the plankton 6 to 1.

What type of caps do we collect?
The program accepts caps that are rigid polypropylene plastic, sometimes noted with a 5 in the chasing arrows recycling symbol. This includes caps that twist on with a threaded neck such as caps on shampoo, water, soda, milk and other beverage bottles, flip top caps on tubes and food product bottles (such as ketchup and mayonnaise), laundry detergents and some jar lids such as peanut butter.

Why can’t bottle caps be recycled with the bottles?
Plastic bottle caps are made from a type of plastic called polypropylene. Plastic bottles, on the other hand, are usually made from a different kind of plastic called polyethylene terepthalate, or number one and PET. Polypropylene, the number-five plastic bottle caps can be made into things like garden rakes, brooms, and ice scrapers, usually sturdy things.

Project reflection

The programs debut at Westminster’s Earth Day Celebration was received well. A majority of those I spoke to were unaware that bottle caps have to be processed separately. They were surprised to learn that the recycling program in Salt Lake City separates the bottle cap from the bottle and throws them away. The ultimate resting place is in the land fill. We handed out almost 100 paper bags for people to take home and fill with bottle caps, once full they can deposit the bag in one of the recycling bins. I, along with another student have pledged to send the bottle caps to Aveda until our graduation in June 2011. It is our hope that we can pass the project on to the next generation Westminster students.