Elmer's® Glue Crew and TerraCycle® challenged elementary and middle school students across the nation to design creative upcycled products using Elmer's glue packaging and other classroom waste.
TerraCycle design experts chose the finalists and then you voted for your favorite eco-product in each category. Voting was open from Monday, April 8th until Friday, April 19th. Winners are announced below.
And the winner of the Elementary School level in the 2013 Eco-Product Design Contest is... (click to see who won!)
Ashlyn Howell and her Hydroponic Garden Container!
"I am Ashlyn Howell (last year's Grand Prize winner!) I am in 4th grade at Del Sur Elementary in San Diego, CA, and am 9 years old. This year for the contest, I designed a hydroponic garden container. I used an old Elmer's glue bottle and an old shoelace to create the container. Growing plants through hydroponics allows you to grow more plants in less space, and because the plant doesn't have to work so hard to get it's nutrients, it actually grows faster and larger than planting in soil.
To create my planter, I removed the orange squirt cap from the Elmer's glue bottle, and cut the bottle in half. I washed it thoroughly to remove all the glue. Then, I repurposed an old shoelace to act as the wick to draw the nutrient water from the bottom piece into the top piece. I ran the shoelace through the bottle's spout, and left a little extra to absorb more water. I filled the bottom half with water mixed with plant food. I used gravel in the upside-down top half to hold the plant. When I placed the two halves back together, I had a hydroponic planter from a repurposed Elmer's glue bottle."
And the winner of the Middle School level in the 2013 Eco-Product Design Contest is... (click to see who won!)
Noah L and his Upcycled Lamp!
"My project is a very creative design for a lamp. The lamp is not a new design, but the way I made it is. At our school, we collect juice pouches in recycle bins in our cafeteria. I used only Koolaid juice pouches for the lamp base because of their really colorful covers. I then wrapped them around a Powerade bottle, which we also recycle at our school. I used a hot glue gun to glue down the Koolaid wrappers. I also used recycled card stock paper that our art room gets from a local hospital that saves the cardstock that comes from between x ray film. That was used to make the stem of the lamp. I painted that purple. I then glued the bottle and stem to a spray-painted ice cream container. The metallic silver spray paint was donated to our art class from a local florist shop that was cleaning out its storage and the ice cream container was from the recycled plastic bin.
My product would be useful in the society today because people would love a colorful new lamp to show off to their friends. I lights up the room with all the cool colors. Lamps provide light to any room. Every person would just LOVE it. If someone would buy it but then don’t like it, they can just pass it on to someone else or just recycle the whole lamp! So then more people can experience what it is like to own a very unique lamp!"
And the Runners-Up are... (click to see)
What are the prizes?
There will be a total of six winners: one grand prize winner and two runners-up from both elementary school submissions and middle school submissions. The general public will vote for the Grand Prize Winners.
The two Grand Prize Winners will be rewarded with the following prizes:
- An Elmer’s and TerraCycle Prize Pack filled with brand new Elmer's products, an upcycled mail bag coin pouch, and a unique, one-of-a-kind upcycled clock made by the TerraCycle Design Junkies.
- Be featured on the TerraCycle website and Facebook page
- TerraCycle will issue a press release on these winners
The four runners-up will receive TerraCycle and Elmer’s prize packs filled with brand new Elmer's products and an upcycled mail bag coin pouch.
All eligible participants are subject to the Eco-Product Design Contest Rules