Students from Friends School Lisburn are celebrating after their business, Bottle Up, was crowned Young Enterprise Northern Ireland Company of the Year. Bottle Up tackles plastic waste by creating handmade flowers from used plastic bottles.

Bottle Up perfectly exemplifies the circular economy by transforming plastic waste into stunning decorative pieces.

By upcycling a common waste product, the students are transforming it into something new and useful, all while promoting sustainability. Their eye-catching flowers come in a variety of styles and colours, offering a unique and eco-friendly alternative to traditional, often mass-produced artificial flowers.

The students set up the business as part of the Young Enterprise Company programme which saw hundreds of students running their own business at school this year, gaining valuable employability skills and an insight into entrepreneurship as a future career pathway.

Representatives from the local business community and local universities were there to celebrate the Company student winners, as well as over 90,000 young people of all ages who have participated in Young Enterprise experiences this year. After public funding cuts, they have rallied to support the work of the charity to ensure that children and young people of Northern Ireland invest in entrepreneurial skills from an early age.

Young Enterprise is Northern Ireland’s leading entrepreneurship skills charity.  To find out how you and your business can get involved visit www.yeni.co.uk