Students and Bottle Caps in the news.  Read it here…

Bottle cap update (1/22/20) in the news.  Read it here…

The exciting One Million Bottle Caps project is challenging Stamford middle school students to collect…one million plastic bottle caps during their 2019-20 school year. In a partnership of SoundWaters, NOAA, and Stamford Public Schools, the students’ unprecedented quest will give them the opportunity to take real action against the growing problem of microplastics in Long Island Sound and show friends, family and the community that they understand the problem and want to do something to secure the future of their planet.

Accepting The Challenge

Science classes in all six Stamford middle schools will collect and count plastic bottle caps and deposit them into a central repository at their school where the impact of their efforts will be clearly visible. Students will gain confidence and experience as environmental stewards by drawing attention to the problem and recruiting friends, family and members of the community to support their quest. At the end of the school year, the bottle caps at each school will be collected and displayed in a central location in the City (e.g., Government Center) to showcase the efforts of Stamford students and provide a powerful illustration for the public of our global plastics problem.

SoundWaters will provide all equipment, services and support to teachers and administrators as well as on-going educational materials to maintain the program’s momentum and mark collection milestones, such as the environmental impact of one school removing 1,000, 10,000, 100,000, etc., bottle caps from the environment.

What Can We Do With All This Plastic?

We estimate 1,000,000 plastic bottle caps to weigh two tons!  Students will be preventing a car’s weight in plastic from flowing into Long Island Sound, but then what?  The types of plastic used in bottle caps are polyethylene and polypropylene, which can be recycled and fabricated into useful products.  SoundWaters is working with the Society of Plastics Engineers (SPE) and plastics manufacturer, Braskem , on plans to recycle the bottle caps and create new products that can be returned to the community.  We are hopeful that students will be able to select the products.  Stay tuned!

How Can You Help?

Pick ‘em up! When you see plastic bottle caps in the environment, pick them up. (If they’re attached to a bottle, make sure the bottle is disposed of properly.)

Drop them off. Contribute to the solution by collecting and saving plastic caps from containers you use at home. Bring your bottle caps to one of the middle schools, SoundWaters or Government Center and deposit them into the bottle cap repository there.  COVID-19 UPDATE:  Students are still collecting, but they will really need the community’s help to reach 1,000,000.  Please continue collecting during this period and when the time is right, you can drop your bottle caps at SoundWaters or at one of the collection locations.  If you drop them at SoundWaters, please count them first so we can quickly add them to the overall tally.  Thank you for your continued support for this effort! 

Challenge your co-workers. Start a movement in your workplace. Promote the issue and the efforts of Stamford students and ask co-workers to collect plastic bottle caps they find and use and bring them to work. When you have a lot, bring them to one of the collection points…and then start collecting again!

Questions? Contact SoundWaters at bottlecaps@soundwaters.org.