Fun at Earth Day Fair

Plastic bottles, milk cartons, and other discards from the Lopez Dump featured prominently in SWAP’s Earth Day Fair activities at the Lopez School on May 2.

May 13, 2014 4:23 pm
Volunteer artist Debbie Collins helps students turn plastic bottles and tissue paper into festive party lights
Volunteer artist Debbie Collins helps students turn plastic bottles and tissue paper into festive party lights

By Sarah Eppenbach

Special to the Weekly

Plastic bottles, milk cartons, and other discards from the Lopez Dump featured prominently in SWAP’s Earth Day Fair activities at the Lopez School on May 2. During the two-hour event at the covered play shed, students (with help from many volunteers) took turns crafting bird feeders from milk cartons, “jellyfish” streamers from ribbon and plastic bottles, and wind chimes from pot lids and cutlery found at the Take-It-Or-Leave-It.

Lopez artists Kate Scott and Debbie Collins designed the activities to provide fun for kids while promoting the concepts of recycling and repurposing in celebration of Earth Day. Younger students played a bowling game with “pins” of plastic bottles filled with colored water and tried out “junk band” instruments such as buckets and broiler pans. Kids of all ages worked on a string of festive party lights made from tissue paper and plastic bottle tops.

For older students, a popular interactive bicycle exhibit, engineered by Chom and Chris Greacen, demonstrated the energy required to power different

types of light bulb. Furthering the energy theme, several Lopez residents showed off their electric vehicles, including a DIY conversion project by Gary Zerbst.

This is the second year that SWAP (Solid Waste Alternatives Program), a Lopez non-profit supporting the Lopez Dump, collaborated with the school on an Earth Day Fair for K-12 students. Kwiaht and the Lopez Island Conservation Corps participated as well.