Photos by JUSTIN COOK The Roanoke Times

Virginia Tech sophomore Tyler Spillenkothen helps erect a wall of bottles found in trash cans around campus as part of Earth Day events taking place on the Drillfield. The idea was to show that, while Tech's once-dormant recycling program was reinvigorated a year ago, many people still don't recycle.

Cassie Harris, 10, hands Virginia Tech police Officer Geof Allen a flier. Cassie traveled from Bedford County with her Thaxton Elementary School classmates, including Anna Thompson (far left), 10, McKenzie Tibbs (back), 11, and Julia Scruggs, 9. This is the 15th straight year Thaxton has won the state competition for its participation in the National Energy Education Development Project.

JUSTIN COOK The Roanoke Times

Bottles were piled in a kiddie pool on Earth Day on the Virginia Tech Drillfield to illustrate how wasteful students can be.

BLACKSBURG -- People may have complained about light rain Tuesday that forced them to seek shelter under tents set up for Earth Day displays on Virginia Tech's Drillfield.

But it was the wind that made the morning interesting for a group of students in an Earth sustainability class. Tech sophomore Lauryn Douglas and three of her classmates thought they had already done the hard part of their class project when they fished through campus trash cans for two weeks in search of plastic bottles, their hands getting sticky with grime.

"We got a lot of funny looks," said sophomore Miranda Peterson. "I'm no longer grossed out about anything."

They collected 1,528 plastic bottles and used about 1,400 of them to create a wall of bottles in five sections more than 6 feet high. The idea was to show students that, while Tech's once-dormant recycling program was reinvigorated a year ago, many people still don't bother to recycle. Hundreds of the bottles were retrieved from trash cans that sit next to recycling bins, Douglas said.

Shortly after the wall was set up Tuesday, a gust of wind knocked it down. Maybe they could get their point across by just laying the sections on the ground, someone suggested.

"No!" Douglas said. "That's the whole point of having the wall. I'm not letting this go down."

Out came the duct tape.

Tuesday's fair included on- and off-campus groups setting up booths to get the word out about various environmental concerns. A group of students from Thaxton Elementary School in Bedford County were there to talk about the work they've done in class as part of the National Energy Education Development Project. This is the 15th straight year the school has won the state competition for its participation in the project.

Fourth-, fifth- and sixth-graders at the school have worked on several small projects such as making paper grocery bags with conservation tips, making miniature solar ovens and signing energy conservation contracts. They've also recycled 2,000 pounds of material a month this year, said Viola Henry, Thaxton Elementary's NEED project manager.

Tuesday was celebrated as Earth Day in several countries, but at Tech it is just a part of Earth Week. The university's Environmental Coalition has declared Thursday "Energy Conservation Day." Another organization, Emerging Green Builders, asked people to limit their car use Tuesday.

The green builders' booth was partly constructed of a material that the architecture students are trying to promote. BuildersCrete, a building material that looks like a tan-colored cinder block, is made mostly from recycled waste such as wood chips and sawdust. Its environmental benefits include the limited impact made during its production to the energy efficiency created by its high level of insulation. Tech junior Jennifer Land said they heard about it from a Floyd couple, Bill and Carla McGuire, who sell the material and have made their home out of it. It just seemed natural for the students to construct their booth from it Tuesday.

"We're architects," Land said. "We couldn't just stand for the normal tent things."

Land looked over at the wall of plastic bottles, lying on the ground about 50 yards away.

"Maybe we should give them some of our blocks," she said.

But Douglas had a plan. To cut down on the wind resistance, the group angled the different sections of wall into a zig-zag shape. Classmates who worked on other projects helped hold sections up and, after students took turns hammering metal stakes into the ground, the sections began to stand again.

Shortly before noon Douglas came running over to Peterson.

"We did it! We did it!" she yelled.

The students took a few minutes to thank their classmates and pat themselves on the back.

"This is what our class is all about," Douglas said. "We're all friends."

"Can we all get lunch now?" Peterson asked.