Donner Trail Elementary School fourth and fifth-grade students are working on a unique student-led service-learning project.

By repurposing plastic caps and lids into benches for our community, Donner Trail’s “Drop the Top” project is working to reduce impact on the environment and give back to the community.

“Whether we realize it or not, we all use and discard plastic caps and lids every day,” a news release states. “Simple things like a cap on a milk jug, laundry detergent caps, yogurt lids, prescription caps, and even toothpaste caps!

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“Students have made 5-gallon collection buckets to collect this plastic, and they reached out to numerous local businesses to have a bin at their business. Thank you to Ace Mountain Hardware and Kelly-Moore Paint for donating the collection bin materials.”

With over 45 participating businesses, the Donner Trail students now need the public’s support to fill them up.

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“It takes a lot of caps and lids to make one bench, so collect them at home and turn them in when you run your errands in town!” the release states. “It’s little things like this that make big changes in our environment.”

Examples of caps and lids that can be recycled include milk jug caps, soda tops, water caps, laundry detergent caps, yogurt lids, prescription caps, toothpaste caps, and juice caps.

Each collection bin has pictures and lists of what to place in the buckets, but for those not sure, toss it in and the students say they will use it if they can. In addition to collecting caps and lids, these Donner Trail students have been busy cleaning, sorting, and weighing all the caps and lids voluntarily on their snack, lunch, and breaks before bagging them for the company. Donner Trail students will continue collecting until May.

Those interested in having a collection bucket at a business, please contact Ashley Perkins at aperkins@ttusd.org.