CREATION AND INSTALLATION OF AN ECOPOINT FOR COLLECTING PET BOTTLE TOPS ON A UNIVERSITY CAMPUS: A REPORT OF AN EXPERIENCE

Abstract

The creation of an ecopoint for the collection of pet bottle covers is being related here. The study aimed to report the experience of implementing an ecopoint on the campus of a technology college in the Alto Tietê region to collect pet bottle covers to seek a correct destination. As a method, the experience report of the creation of 3 cap collection points on the campus of a technology college in the Alto Tietê region was chosen. For the creation of ecopoints, transparent acrylic was chosen. The transparent acrylic was bent, and a wooden plate was fixed both above and below to provide support and make the mouth where the caps enter to be quite comfortable, as there are caps of different sizes. All this material was fixed with rivets and nuts to make it secure and, finally, a small plate was created to fix it on the wall, which would fit a hook to be fixed in the points released by the Board and Coordination of the campus. The collectors were installed in November 2022 and the caps were collected in February 2023. The results showed that the collectors caused an impact among campus visitors in the four-month interval in which they were available at the selected points, since all had their capacity at their limit at the beginning of classes in February 2023. It was concluded that the creation of an ecopoint, in the case of pet bottle covers like this work, sensitizes the campus community, whether students or teachers, in the sense to encourage a circular economy.