508 kilos of plastic bottle tops have been collected on the Reims campus by the Oikos and Peach societies, in a challenge to the Students, Sports and Arts committees.

Kubra Yolcu, Laurenn Jouan, Clara Perraut and Lilly Saura are all first-year students on the NEOMA Master in Management programme, on the Reims campus. They are also committed members of voluntary societies: Peach, which promotes mutual help and solidarity, and Oikos, whose activities contribute to sustainable development.

It was this citizen engagement they all shared which gave them the idea of doing something to benefit the ‘Bouchons d’amour’ organisation, which recycles plastic bottle tops to provide equipment for people with a disability. 

The bright idea of our students to boost the collection of bottle tops was to organise the activity during the election campaigns for the Students, Sports and Arts committees (the BDE, BDS and BDA).

The Committees are re-elected every year. Student candidates (known as the ‘listeux’), organised in competing lists, then throw themselves into real electoral campaigns designed to appeal to the student voters.

Challenged by our student societies, the ‘listeux’ were able to prove their potential for commitment by trying to collect as many bottle tops as possible over a period of four weeks.

The collections were first weighed four days before the end of the competition, with the results revealed on social networks, giving a real boost to the collection effort: the students had four days left to catch up or get even further ahead!

“We very surprised at the enthusiasm of the ‘listeux’ students for the collection!” says Clara, a member of Oikos.

“They really entered into the spirit of this project and made a superb pitch for their competitive effort, for them it was a chance to prove something!” added Kubra, from the Peach Society.

 When the collection ended on 4 March, our four students were able to hand over 508 kilos of bottle tops to the Marne branch of ‘Bouchons d’amour’, to be sent to their partner recycling company.

Very well done to the members of Peach and Oikos for such wonderful commitment and to all the ‘listeux’ students who all agreed to take part in this voluntary challenge!