Twenty-three year old Trevor Bessette stands at the St. John’s Farmers’ Market entrance on a bustling, sunny Saturday morning.
He holds a handful of plastic bottle caps in several colours — red, green, blue, white.
From a bin at the market entrance, he’ll bring them home where he’ll sort them by colour, shred them, melt them, and then inject them into molds to create useful products such as flower pots, keychains and coasters.
“The goal for now is to start off with some smaller, simpler products,” the St. John’s resident says.
“And then as time goes on, we’re hoping to narrow in on products that are really useful but also have a long lifespan because I think the name of the game is to extend the life cycle and the life of materials for as long as possible. And then the next step after that would be to recollect all the products we sell, and then recycle them again and reuse the material over and over.”
For now, he’s still at the collection stage of the project, and he’s hoping the public will respond by dropping their plastic bottle caps into a wooden bin at the market entrance.
The initiative is an offshoot of his business, Seaside Reclaimed, which sells clothing made from reclaimed cotton scraps and post-consumer plastic water bottles, the sales of which a portion goes to fund local clean-ups around the province.
While the clothing is screen-printed locally, the fabrics themselves are made by Recover Brands out of North Carolina.
“Globally, there are certain types of plastics and certain plastic products that do kind of slip through the cracks, and bottle caps tend to be one of those things." — Trevor Bessette
Bessette says he’s always wanted to create something fully local, and that’s what he’s doing with the bottle cap project, called Recycle on the Rock.
While plastic bottle caps can be included in regular curbside recycling in St. John’s, they are not able to be recycled everywhere, such as some private depots which require that customers remove the caps before bringing in recyclables.
Now, those customers can collect their plastic caps, such as those used on plastic soda bottles and some juice containers, and drop them off at the Farmers’ Market any day it’s open (currently Wednesday evenings, and daytime on Saturdays and Sundays).
“Globally, there are certain types of plastics and certain plastic products that do kind of slip through the cracks, and bottle caps tend to be one of those things,” explains Bessette.
“That is something that I want to alleviate altogether and say if you bring them to us, we’ll make sure they’re recycled here, and then we’ll turn them into products right here.”
Similar to his goals with Seaside Reclaimed, Bessette says he also plans to use the project to start conversations about recycling, and to encourage more people to engage in environmentally-friendly practices.
“I’m doing whatever I can to fight climate change and plastic pollution. I suppose there’s definitely a part of me that because I grew up right next to the ocean, there’s always a connection to the ocean. And so, when you see the impact that plastic has - especially in ocean ecosystems, and the shorelines, there’s definitely a connection there which motivates me.”
Collection locations
Bessette is looking to expand the number of collection points. Any business or organization that would like to become a community drop-off point can get in touch with him at [email protected].
For the St. John’s Farmers’ Market, it was a logical partnership.
“We were all about it because it’s really fundamental to a lot of our core beliefs,” explains executive director Pam Anstey.
“I mean, we are looking at sustainability and we are looking at reusability and all of those things, so it fits so well that we were just delighted to be able to have a space, and certainly a central location, that people could come, drop off their pesky bottle caps that usually end up in the trash, and now they can actually be reused into something that’s really cool.”
Anstey says it’s a new addition to the market, but it’s already quite popular - she’s noticed many people show up with small bags of caps to drop in the bin.
“People have really responded very well, and are starting to make a habit of it. So, it’s brand new, but it’s already catching on really well.”
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