Giant bottle to highlight green issues

Student Union President Charlotte Till with library staff Rhinannon Pugh and Sharon Hughes by the giant bottle

A giant plastic bottle took pride of place in Coleg Menai’s main library in Bangor to highlight environmental issues recently.

The 9ft 5ins construction was the centrepiece of an information display about plastics, recycling, the environment and volunteering at the Bangor campus library for a whole week from November 26th to 30th. Learning resources assistant, Rhiannon Pugh, who created the piece, said: “It took quite some time to plan and think about - but once I had it all clear in my head it was fairly quick to actually build! “The environment is of course a huge topic and it’s important we’re conscious of what we waste and look after our community. I wanted to explore how the whole world is really our community.”

The project explored issues that fall under the Education for Sustainable Development and Global Guidance (ESDGC) learning initiative. The giant bottle itself was assembled using gardening mesh and a bamboo framework, with a layer of newspapers on top that was then a covered in a blue plastic bag.The lid was a simple salad spinner.

Students, staff and visitors were also invited to share their top tips for reducing plastic use with a crowdsourced padlet.com information board at the library. There was also a wealth of information on volunteer work at the library throughout the week, put on display by Bangor Student Union President Charlotte Till.

For more information about courses at Coleg Menai, visit www.gllm.ac.uk.