A metro Atlanta therapist is transforming discarded plastic into art to inspire kids.
Heather Elson founded “No More Liddering” to turn bottle caps into large-scale installations. Students are helping create dozens of pieces, including a major Earth Day exhibit at the Atlanta Botanical Garden. Her goal is to show how small, everyday choices can make a lasting environmental impact.
Elson says the idea to use lids to make art first came while working with children on social skills. “I’m a therapist, so I work with kids. And children, and I was leading social skills groups in my at the practice that I was working at. I saw an idea on Pinterest and I said we could do that in our groups,” Elson explained.
As more people began collecting lids, Elson started to see the scale of the problem she was trying to address. “I recognized this is the problem, the single use plastic… Plastic because that what I get just at my house, the amount. And then I thought I’m just this tiny little person with my tiny little basement compared to like the global perspective. I decided to combine beautification and sustainable action,” she explained.
Through her organization, No More Liddering, Elson and her community have now created more than 75 pieces of art, all made from recycled plastic. The project has since grown into a hands-on learning experience for students. Elson now provides kits to schools, giving kids the chance to design and build their own artwork.
Her work has already been featured at Georgia Tech and inside Mercedes-Benz Stadium. Now, she’s preparing for an Earth Day installation at the Atlanta Botanical Garden, where students will help complete 24 new pieces. “So these kids are going to be installed artists,” she explained.
For Elson, the artwork is just one part of the mission. She says the bigger goal is helping children understand their role in protecting the environment. “They just walk up and they want to help and then they can see that they’re a part of something bigger, which is the whole point of this,” she said.
“One little lid might not look like a lot, but when you put thousands on a board, it does create something bigger and so we liken that to the choices we make everyday. Our biggest ask is that you refuse plastic beverage bottles all of them and refuse plastic bags all of them. And if we make these little choices combined makes a really big impact,” she added.
The installation will be at the Atlanta Botanical Garden on Earth Day, April 22, where kids can help put the finishing touches on the artwork. You can find out more here.
