Boy Scout Caden McKinney is collecting recycled plastic, which will then serve to produce benches and tables, to beautify Garfield Park, in Mars. The effort is his Eagle Scout project. Justin Guido/Butler Eagle

MARS — It takes some inspiration to turn the caps from plastic bottles — arrayed as they are in bright blues, greens and yellows — into the benches and chairs of a community park.

But that’s exactly what 15-year-old Caden McKinney plans to do.

“I came up with the idea,” he said. “It was because, a couple years ago, during quarantine, me and my friends would always hang out in Mars. That park didn’t really have a lot of tables or benches to sit at. So I thought it would be a good idea for me to get tables and benches for just anyone in the community to go there and sit down, and just eat or talk to people when they’re there at the park.”

Caden has collected 550 pounds of plastic bottle caps and $1,000 in donations since October, with the aim of recycling the supplies he has collected into two benches, a table and a garbage can for Garfield Park. He’ll enlist the services of manufacturer Green Tree Plastics, which will produce the equipment from the recycled caps, to fulfill the requirements for his Eagle Scout project.