Academy sixth graders helped the community gather bottle caps as part of a new recycling program, the “Hawaii School Bottle Cap Collection Challenge.”

In the past, plastic caps were not recycled. They were just thrown away in the trash.

Sixth grade teacher, Griffith Jurgens, said, “Once I heard about this challenge, I wanted my students to participate because I thought that it was a good way to help the environment, especially after seeing so many bottle caps on the ground. We have a club, The Go Green Club, that helps to better our community by spreading the word about better ways to treat our environment. It was a great opportunity to spread the word through our school and get people to recycle their bottle caps.”

To encourage others to recycle plastic caps, the sixth graders spread the word to families and friends outside of school and created posters for different sites for students to deposit their plastic, screw-top caps into designated bins.

From Feb. 1 to Mar. 31, sixth graders collected 10 bags weighing more than 110 pounds. The top winning school will earn a special performance by singer Jack Johnson, known for his All At Once campaign to support sustainable local food systems and plastic initiatives.

Sixth grader Emi Horii said, “We tried our best to spread the word and received the majority of our bottle caps from the cafeteria. I also wanted to recycle as many bottle caps as I could because it was helping the environment, making the world a better place.”