The Amazing Journey of Bottley: A Project Seeking to Rethink What We Teach About Recycling and Reuse

As parents, we all know the rush of love when our child runs toward us, beaming, holding a handmade gift in their small hands. A funny little creature made from a yogurt container with googly eyes. An ornament made from bottle caps. A pencil holder crafted from a cut plastic bottle. These creations are pure affection, and we treasure them.

Our “eco-friendly” crafts often create more waste

The core realization is difficult: many of these crafts take highly recyclable materials and turn them into objects that are difficult—or impossible—to recycle.

By adding glue, paint, googly eyes, or decorations to a clean plastic bottle or yogurt container, we contaminate the original material, making it unacceptable for most recycling facilities.

And these crafts are often fragile and short-lived. Loved briefly, they soon break or are set aside, eventually ending up in the trash.

A project meant to reduce waste ironically only delays the material’s trip to the landfill—and makes it unrecyclable in the process.

As the book’s author explains:

“We’re turning materials that were very recyclable into something difficult—or outright impossible—to recycle… and that lasts only a very short time.”

It’s not about “good or bad” materials — it’s about purpose

This problem points to a critical gap in our collective environmental education.

The common approach focuses incorrectly on whether a material is “good” or “bad”.

Here in Chile, we constantly hear campaigns saying ‘plastic is bad’ or ‘avoid plastic’, without any deeper explanation. We see a plastic container and immediately think, ‘We should reuse this’, without considering the consequences of that transformation.

Real eco-literacy requires a shift in mindset: the focus shouldn’t be the material itself, but the purpose and function of what we create.

Upcycling should aim—very broadly—at one of two goals: creating objects that are durable, useful, and truly functional; or, if they are not meant to be durable, making them from materials that degrade easily, are biodegradable, and ideally compostable at home.

Educators aren’t to blame; the lack of knowledge is widespread.

And even our sources of inspiration reinforce the confusion:

“To this day, when I search for ‘recycling crafts for kids’, Google still shows me containers with googly eyes. That’s not even recycling; it’s reuse. The search results themselves reflect a basic conceptual confusion.”

An ambitious project became a simple, powerful book

This same realization inspired the creation of The Amazing Journey of Bottley.

The book is a grounded, simplified version of a much more ambitious idea. Initially inspired by the Precious Plastic Foundation, the author’s original plan was a large-scale STEM plastic-recycling project for her children’s school.

When the project stalled due to lack of funding, the setback became an opportunity to address the root of the issue: a fundamental lack of understanding.

The result was a book designed to teach children (and their parents) the basics of plastic recycling and reuse.

But it goes further: the story is not only about the technical process, but about something deeper—finding purpose.

It draws a beautiful parallel: Just as we should create objects with a clear and lasting function, the story encourages children to reflect on their own purpose in the world.

A new question for our craft box

True eco-consciousness is not about reusing materials for the sake of it.

It’s about understanding the full life cycle of those materials and creating with intention.

It’s about teaching our children that the goal is not to keep something out of the trash for a week, but to give it a new, useful, and durable life.

This is a gap in our collective education that we, as parents and educators, now have the power to address.

So next time we hold a plastic bottle in our hands, let’s ask our children a new question:

Not “What can we turn this into?”, but “What useful, lasting purpose can we give this next?”