This is a guest blog post is written by Makayla Jones, a student in Incline Village, NV

Do you ever stop to think about where your plastic bottles end up? Far too many people don’t, especially considering that only about 25% of plastic bottles actually get recycled. That’s why the Incline High Generation Green Club decided to find a way to help people realize the effect their plastic bottles have on our planet.

The Plastic Footprint project was created to raise awareness about harm that single-use plastic causes the environment. The idea came from my art teacher, Anne Clark, who was shocked by the number of plastic water bottles left in her classroom by students. She decided to build a sculpture of a foot squishing the earth and leaving a footprint. The foot is covered with plastic bottles and overflowing with trash at the top, representing our discarded plastic and trash. Even the Earth itself is sculpted from trash. The sculpture represents the impact of our waste on the planet — only about 25% of our plastic gets recycled and everything else is thrown into landfills or left as litter!

This sculpture was a community project and everyone was welcome to help. Students from Incline Elementary School and Incline High School, along with teachers and community members, all pitched in. To help get the word out, The Plastic Footprint will be brought to the Burning Man festival, the Squaw Valley Institute and many other places. For me, the best part of working on this project was meeting all the people who wanted to be involved and be a part of something bigger than themselves. A lot of people helped out at the beginning, and some even stayed through the end! It was great working with everyone and I really enjoyed trying to spread the word about not using single use plastic!

In the end, we’re hoping that this project will show people how much single-use plastic really does affect the world. We all can make a difference with a few simple life changes such carrying a reusable water bottle and bringing your own bags to the store.