Students Make Bottle Caps Count

Ranney School students are up to their ears, literally, in plastic bottle caps. Since October, they have collected more than 164,000 bottle caps from family, friends, and even individuals they have never met, as part of their ongoing effort to fight ocean pollution. The students are collecting the caps as part of a contest sponsored by the environmental group Clean Ocean Action (COA) and the beauty products company Aveda. Since a majority of plastic caps cannot be recycled and end up in landfills or in waterways, devastating beaches and wildlife, the two groups decided to sponsor the contest to get caps out of the water and into a special recycling program.

Ranney Lower School Science teacher Jennifer McDermott says what began with just a few caps quickly mushroomed into thousands as word of the contest spread across campus. Before long, parents, teachers, administrators, and even people outside the Ranney School community began to contribute.

“My father started collecting caps at his business,” commented Karl Brand (’14), as did Alanna Boland’s (’15) mother, who invited co-workers and clients to donate their caps. Fourth grader Pooja Nayer says her parents, both physicians, posted signs in the hospitals where they worked, and the caps just came pouring in.

James Wolfe (’15), who brought the contest to the attention of Ms. McDermott, says the best part is that anyone can do it. “It’s not hard,” James says. “All you have to do is remember to separate your cap before you throw the bottle into the recycling bin.”

Members of the Lower School Science club are charged with keeping track of the deluge of caps as they come in. The contest winner will be announced at COA’s annual Beach Ball on May 17, 2009, but Pooja says it doesn’t really matter who wins. “It just makes me happy to know that all of these caps will not be going in the ocean and that our school cares about the environment.”

For additional information on all Ranney School news, please contact the Communications Department at communications@ranneyschool.org.