Venezuelan mural artist uses recycled plastic to light up Caracas suburb

"We hope they'll keep up the habit." Schoolteacher Osmara Aponte, who brought half a dozen children to work on the mural, said it was a great way for them to learn about recycling.

On the outskirts of Caracas, dozens of children and older residents are hard at work carefully gluing plastic bottle caps onto a cement wall, which in just two weeks has turned into a colorful mural displaying the edges of two enormous, blue-winged macaws. The "eco-mural" in Guatire, 42 kilometers (26 miles) east of Venezuela's capital, is the design of 25-year-old artist Oscar Olivares.

Olivares, who used social media to invite the public to contribute waste plastic, said the project will recycle around 300,000 bottle caps. "Many people are recycling for the first time in their lives thanks to this mural," he said. "We hope they'll keep up the habit."

Schoolteacher Osmara Aponte, who brought half a dozen children to work on the mural, said it was a great way for them to learn about recycling. "They can learn that anything from a lid to any type of plastic can become useful," she said.