These Bell Island students are turning trash into art — and learning about sustainability

How many bottle caps do you think it takes to make a mural the size of three plywood sheets?

That is exactly what students at St. Augustine's Elementary recently decided to find out, with the help of environmental artist Brian Burke. 

The only elementary school on Bell Island, in Newfoundland's Conception Bay, St Augustine's is celebrating its 40th anniversary and to commemorate the milestone, students are building a mural made out of bottle caps.  

Through funding from ArtsSmarts — a government program that incorporates art and artists in school curricula — the school began working on the mural in December, with the students sorting and ironing thousands and thousands of bottle caps.

Before embarking on the larger mural, students started small, practising by using the bottle caps to make their initials, and once they mastered that, they started on the harder stuff.

It's not Burke's first foray into recycled art; a previous project with the Wabana Boys and Girls club depicted mine workers made out of plastic bags.

• Wabana says 'thank you' to expat Bell Islanders with mural made from repurposed materials

"Hopefully they'll learn out of it not only what they can do with trash but that [it] doesn't need to be trash. We're throwing away way too much," Burke said. "If you can do a mural, why can't you do a picnic table? Why can't you do lawn furniture? Why can't you do beams? Why can't you do a lot of things?"

So how many bottle caps does it takes make a mural? Some of the children guess 1,000. Others say 2000, and still others think it's 5,000.

As it turns out, this piece of art will take upwards of 15,000 bottle caps to complete.

WATCH | From trash to treasure — these Bell Island students are making art from bottlecaps to mark their school's anniversary:

This Bell Island school mural proves one person’s trash is another person’s art

8 months ago

Duration 1:51

Students at St. Augustine’s Elementary in Wabana are using around 15,000 bottle caps for a massive mural to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the school. It’s taken hot glue, hard work, and guidance by environmental art activist Brian Burke, but it has shown that not everything is fit for the trash. The CBC’s Ife Alaba has more.

Burke estimated that people have donated at least 30,000 caps to the project.

"It's nothing strange to see a garbage bag full of bottle caps come over on the ferry from somebody in town," said Burke. "And we're taking the bottle caps and we're going to prove to the government and to the world that even garbage is not garbage if it's handled right."

Student Sami Butler says she believes people might assume kids wouldn't be able to make the mural "or that it came off Amazon or something "

Burke and the students were planning to finish the mural after the Easter break, and then it will be installed in front of the school.

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