LAFAYETTE, Colo. — Teachers and students at Angevine Middle School in Lafayette have found a way to raise awareness about plastic bottle consumption -- hang them on the wall.

Art teacher Patty Jones receives a yearly grant from the Lafayette Cultural Arts Commission and uses the money for large-scale art projects. This year she wanted to focus on conservation.

"I like to do something that shows that art can send a message," she said.

Jones and her students estimated that Angevine uses up to 3,000 bottles per week (mostly small milk bottles), so instead of tossing them in the recycling bin, they temporary diverted the bottles to a "water bottle tapestry" in one of the school's main hallways.

The project has been in the making since the start of the school year, when the eighth-grade art students began collecting bottles. Once they had enough plastic to drape the school's atrium (estimated between 6,500 and 7,000 bottles), the seventh-grade art students strung the assorted bottles together.

"It makes the windows of the atrium look like the stain glass of a church," Jones said.

The United States is the world's largest consumer of plastic bottles. According to the Container Recycling Institute, 72 billion plastic bottles were sold in 2006 (that's 2,283 bottles used every second), and less than 24 percent of them were recycled. In home decorating terms, that's a lot of potential drapery.

While making the tapestry, Jones also taught her students about conservation so they could have factual information to accompany the tangible example of bottle consumption. But for most students, the plastic bottle drapery was enough to make an impact.

"It really shows how many bottles Americans use," said seventh-grader Deedee Strohl, "and it's pretty shocking."

http://www.dailycamera.com/news/2009/apr/13/students-drape-their-windows-with-activism/