Froid Students Learn Art Of Recycling

Froid’s ninth-grade art students recently completed a fun unit on creating wearable, hand-crafted art using paper cups. Students were introduced to the recycling process by first watching a video on how paper cups are made, including the stamping and inking process used to create the readily recognizable and colorful logos featured on most vendors’ cups.

Students learned that paper cups are a “one-time use product,” usually used and then thrown away within a span of 30 minutes or less, and it can take between 20-30 years for a cup to break down in a landfill. The class then learned the process of how used paper cups are collected and eventually made into recycled cardboard through a multi-stage procedure.

Using cups donated by local food and beverage vendors, ninth graders learned how to carefully deconstruct each cup, trace and cut out individual pattern pieces and then stitch the cup pieces together to create their caps.

“Each cap is made up of 16 individual cups, and a total of 1,220 holes must be punched before everything can be stitched together,” explained Froid’s art teacher Maria Gallegos. “The students were eager to use a variety of colored and patterned cups, and in some cases, even the cardboard from the soda pop box was used in the cap creation. They hand-stitched the pieces together, after punching holes around the perimeter of each pattern piece, using a hand held hole punch.”

There were many instances of knotted threads and miscalculations,” added Gallegos. “This was unit was about recycling, but it was also a good learning experience about the need for accuracy and patience during the creation process.”

Happily wearing their colorful creations, Froid students were pleased with the successful completion of their caps.