HIGH school pupils have been saving the planet – one bottle top at a time.

Boys and girls at St Gabriel's Roman Catholic High School, in Bridge Road, have managed to save 17,500 of the plastic lids from going to landfill over the past six months.

Martin Reynolds, an English teacher from the school who is using extra-curricular sessions to educate youngsters about the environment, said it was a “brilliant effort”.

He added: “They understand how waste and plastics can have a negative impact on the environment.

“They have been absolutely great with the collection, one girl managed to collect 2,500 and another more than 1,000.

“Lots and lots of the kids have got involved and have got behind it, so that’s been really good.”

Bottle caps are often so small that it’s easy to overlook the impact they have on the environment.

If you drop one on the ground at the park, you may think it’s not a big deal.

But research environmentalists found that plastic bottle caps are one of the top 10 items found during clean-ups in natural spaces, and are the second most littered item after cigarette butts.

So the bottle tops have been delivered by the school to handmade cosmetics company Lush, which processes them at its factory where they are then sorted, washed and used as feedstock for their black pots.

Continuing the cycle, the black pots can also be returned to Lush, once used, where they are then recycled once again.

Lush also offers a free facemask pot for every five pots returned, as a nice little incentive to recycle.

St Gabriel’s has a focus on raising awareness of environmental issues in school, for example it has been encouraging pupils to cycle to school.

Mr Reynolds added: “The pupils, and the younger generation in general, really seem to care about the environment.

“They have an un-blinkered view of the world.

“They are just given the information and just know what needs to be done.

“If you present them with it and show them that changes can be made, they will just go for it.”