A simple drawing from a third grade student called Sammie Vance started the ball rolling for much good. She drew a cartoon strip which showed how a lonely child was able to sit on a bench, called the buddy bench, and signal that he wanted to play. Then someone in the playground would approach the child and ask him to play with them.

The concept of the buddy bench was to make children who were without friends, become integrated in the general groups on the play ground. The system was accepted by the school and they set out three such buddy benches in Sammie’s school. All of which are being regularly used. However, that’s not the only good that came out of the drawing.

Sammie’s buddy benches are made out of recycled plastic bottle caps and lids. Her family and friends collected 63 bags of trash filled with these bottle caps to be recycled and re-purposed into the buddy benches. After the ones in her own school Sammie has now been collecting caps and lids for 11 other schools in and around her city.

Recycling plastic waste is a good science project, and the buddy benches make a huge impact on the lives of the children using them. This is a win win situation all over.