STEM-In-Action Grant
Team ColumbiaGreen
We are
team ColumbiaGreen from Madison, Alabama, and we started this project as sixth
graders in the summer of 2016. We heard about the eCYBERMISSION competition
through online research, specifically competitions that make a difference in
the community.
We noticed that some of the plastic bottles in the recycling bins throughout our
community had the bottle cap still on, and some did not. We also noticed these caps
littered our neighborhood community pond and school grounds.
We soon
discovered our local recycling company only accepted the bottles, not the caps.
The caps are made from a plastic that’s chemically different than the plastic
used to make the bottles. When residents recycled these caps, they could
potentially cause harm to workers, and those put in the trash were sent to a landfill
or could potentially harm wildlife.
We
surveyed people within our neighborhood and found that most people were unaware
of the recycling situation and were eager to change their ways for the
environment. We set up a yellow bin as a pilot in our neighborhood, and it
collected 5,000 caps in just six months!
With the
STEM-In-Action Grant prize, we plan to expand this pilot throughout the city of
Madison, Ala. We will arrange the collection of the plastic bottle caps, and
send them down to Troy, Ala. to correctly dispose of them. Our end goal is to
have our system fully implanted throughout Madison by the end of the year.
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