Caroline Chaptini is a Lebanese activist who broke the Guinness World Record for the Largest Plastic Bottle Sculpture in 2019, a Christmas tree that stood tall and proud in Chekka.
Encouraged that she broke Mexico’s record, she now wants to beat Japan’s record by creating the largest crescent moon out of recycled plastic bottle caps.
The Beginning
Her journey began when she created a Christmas tree with 500 plastic bottles in her home. Encouraged by friends, she decided to make a larger one.
She prepared for months, asking around to collect plastic bottles from restaurants and others in her town.
Her motto became “Save them, don’t throw them,” and she continued to collect bottles for five months until she finally reached her goal for the Christmas tree.
It took 20 days to complete this tree of 129,000 bottles and she beat Mexico’s world record for the tallest plastic bottle sculpture at 28.1m!
The Crescent Moon
This year Caroline is working on a new project proving that Lebanese people are united regardless of religion or sect.
After the outstanding success of her Christmas tree, she decided to create a crescent moon, as an homage to the month of Ramadan.
In just five months, she has managed to collect a million bottle caps. Using these bottle caps, Caroline is currently working on the crescent moon and two-star that she hopes will also be included in the Guinness World Records.
Her project is not only environmental but also humanitarian. The one million caps she collected with help from people all around Lebanon will later go to an association in Jbeil called “Kids First” that supports young cancer patients.
Due to the coronavirus, the team is smaller this year, and the project won’t be on display, but Caroline has been sharing every step of her work with her followers on social media accounts.
“No doubt, the world is going through a very difficult time right now. Although it would be easy for me to give up on my project, I will not! Even if I must continue this project alone,” she wrote.
“We must forge forward in life and never allow adversity to keep us down. This Hilal (crescent) will symbolize hope for a Healthier & Stronger World. Stay Home and safely watch as I begin to assemble the largest Hilal made of recycled bottle caps.”
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