Local students use our plastic bottle tops to create stunning community mosaic artworks, to brighten up and inspire the local community. Stafford Moreton Way Project: Update.

When the Friends of Maghull and District (FOMD CIC) originally planned the recycling rhinoceros sculpture as part of the Stafford Moreton Way Ecology Project (2019), we wanted to provide a constant message in one of the highest footfall areas in Maghull about the importance of endangered wildlife and plastic recycling.

We had intended to collect the clean plastic bottle tops until it was full and leave it as a permanent statement. However, since its unveiling (April 2021) it has drawn so much affectionate engagement through the collecting and inserting of bottle tops by the whole community, that we belatedly changed tact and have sought a variety of organisations that could either recycle or upcycle the bottle tops.

Consequently, we have previously reported that the plastic bottle tops are being recycled by:

Community Stockport Plastic Shed Social Enterprise

(https://www.plasticshed.org/) which does not make plastic sheds (!), but shreds the bottle tops and makes thin and thick plastic sheets that are used in an amazing array of creative artworks and functional items. Their enthusiasm and knowledge is incredible, leaving us with a huge array of ethical resource networks. They have initially taken 3,500 bottle tops.

Neston High School. Is a new school with a fantastic textile department and have taken approximately 100,000 bottle tops. They have created their own machinery to clean, shred, melt and mould beautiful creations that the children are rightly proud of and have now even won scientific awards. Every time we visit we are amazed and inspired.
Dot Art in Liverpool (https://dot-art.co.uk/) are one of the largest community art organisations in the area, and are celebrating their 10th anniversary with a schools competition and workshops focusing on recycling (https://schools.dot-art.com/dot-art-schools-celebrates…/), which led to a contact with a local famous artist whose artwork utilises everything that can be recycled (https://faithbebbington.co.uk/). Faith Bebbington currently has the honour of one of her installations being displayed as a prize at St Nicholas’s Church for one year. https://www.itv.com/…/meet-jimmy-the-latest-sculpture… Faith has taken 25,000 bottle tops for a secret future project!

Now, we are absolutely delighted to announce that over the last year Southport Art College (Mrs Holland-Starling) and the Art Department at Maghull High School (Mrs Eborrall) have created a series of mosaics that are beyond our wildest expectations when we collected them two weeks ago. They both originally received 25,000 bottle tops each and we kindly requested if they could focus their creative work around a variety of Pinterest images related to the Stafford Moreton Way Project themes of nature and conservation. With the aim of installing the pictures on the medical centre wall between Morrisons and the Halifax bank, to provide a beautiful and inspiring area for the community to enjoy. We have a tentative agreement from a local construction company to make and install bespoke cabinets for the artwork and on completion we will have an official unveiling and thank everybody in much more detail. In addition, we hope it will provide another opportunity to say thank you for their artwork undertaken on the two local street bins.

Maghull High School, stages

On behalf of our community, we would like to express our immense gratitude to all the teachers and students, for their time and creativity. I hope we can feel the communal sense of pride for what they have achieved.

In the meantime, we would be delighted to hear from any schools or organisations who would like to receive free bottle tops to create their own pieces of art to be displayed in their own school/organisation or even on public display in the community.

For further information please contact: admin@fomd.co.uk or check out our website (still under construction) at www.fomd.co.uk

With Huge Thanks,

FOMD

#FOMDCIC