Photo provided Parkside students who helped with the bottle cap effort and adult supervisors included, back row, left-right, Jolinn Bodkins, Dave Watts, Sandy Watts, middle row, left-right, Henry Adams, Cooper Koons, Audrey Bohland, Grace Baute and Elliott Witt, and front row, left-right, Noah Riley, Wyatt Adams, Cait Koons and Avery Witt.

Local students, community members, businesses and church members recently collaborated to collect more than 1,000 pounds of recyclable plastic.

These items — along with a monetary contribution — were brought to Green Tree Plastics in Evansville and exchanged for a picnic table for Parkside Elementary and two benches for Columbus’ First United Methodist Church’s outdoor labyrinth.

The origin story of the drive dates back to 2018, said Parkside teacher Sandy Watts. At the time, Watts and her husband, Dave, helped a student who was collecting caps as a senior project. The senior was able to use the caps collected to obtain three benches for the airport.

“After he was done, people just kept bringing them to us,” said Watts. “They’d be by our garage door. If we’d go to church, they might put a bag where we normally sit at church, in the church pew. So it just kept going. And we just hated to stop being involved, because all that plastic would go in our landfill.”

Following the senior project, Watts worked with Columbus Municipal Airport Director Brian Payne to collect more caps, which helped the airport get trash cans. She was also able to install a bench in Seymour to honor her father, Bill Estell, who was principal of Emerson Elementary for more than 30 years.

Watts and her husband continued to receive more caps. However, the airport decided to pull away from cap collection for a time, so she contacted Jolinn Bodkins, a third-grade teacher at Parkside, to see if the school would be interested in doing a project. They agreed with school officials hoping to use the caps to buy an 8-foot-long, adult-size picnic table.

Parkside students of all ages were asked to collect plastic caps for several months. The collection was competitive, and the winning classes had an ice cream party.

Watts also reached out to her church, First United Methodist, to see if they might want to get involved as well. The church’s goal was to have two 6-foot benches for the flower gardens near its new outdoor labyrinth.

Companies also helped with the project. The Watts’ garage had begun to fill up with caps, so Elwood Staffing allowed the couple to store them in their warehouse. Enkei donated caps it had collected, and Driftwood Builders provided a truck and storage for the cause. Additionally, the Tony London Co. is providing a plaque for the Parkside picnic table, which will display the number of caps used to help purchase the item.

Once it seemed like enough caps had been collected to reach both goals, Watts worked with Parkside’s third grade classes to sort and weigh the caps. Teachers, some sixth graders, and adult volunteers, including a number of retired educators, were also involved.

The collected caps were dumped out and sorted. Usable caps were put in paper boxes, which other schools had helped save for the project. The caps were then weighed and placed in trash bags, with students helping keep a running total throughout the process.

Based on initial estimates from people who helped move caps into the warehouse, the Watts believed 1,200 pounds had been collected. Then, after working with the students, they tallied an estimate of 991 pounds of usable material. In the end, after Green Tree Plastics had sorted through the caps and removed anything that was undesirable, it came out to 1,012 pounds of usable plastic.

They were able to use the collected caps to help get Parkside’s picnic table and two benches for First United Methodist. In addition to the donated caps, Parkside’s table cost $675, with Amber and John Elwood covering about half the cost and the school’s Parent-Teacher Organization making up the remainder. The two benches cost $590 altogether, and First United Methodist paid the cost out of its garden committee fund.

The items were purchased through Green Tree Plastics’ ABC Promise Partnership. According to the program’s social media, Green Tree Plastics “recycles Evansville’s own excess industrial polymers into custom designed/ formulated parts, picnic tables, benches, landscape timbers.”

Through the ABC Promise, groups are able to collect plastic caps and lids and exchange these, along with funds, for the item of their choice. The program was designed by kids for kids as a “tool to learn about caring for the earth and green living.” It was later expanded to allow participation by adult groups as well.

Watts’ husband dropped off the caps at Green Tree and picked up the items, and the couple paid for gas for the trip, as well as gifts for sponsors.

Watts said she’s not sure if she and her husband will ever do a similar project again, but they are still collecting caps and will continue to do so. They’re also looking at some potential future partners, such as local schools or a park in Hanover.

It’s important “with everything that’s happening in the world and with our landfills being filled” that children learn to recycle, said Watts.

She added that the recent project was a success because Parkside, First United Methodist, businesses and individuals — both from Columbus and other communities — all worked together.

“That’s Columbus, I think,” said Watts.

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