Kentucky girl scouts who were tricked into collecting 15,000 bottle caps as part of a hoax say they are thrilled they've found a real use for them.

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The Girl Scouts of America Kentucky Wilderness Council Troop 1050 from Highland Heights, Ky., like other local residents, believed they were helping to pay for a boy's cancer treatment by collecting bottle caps. But the disappointment that came from learning the boy didn't exist turned to happiness when the girls found out a Minnesota hair products maker could really use the caps to help the environment, the Cincinnati Enquirer reported Tuesday.

Aveda Corp. of Blaine, Minn., operates a bottle cap recycling program to make new metal caps rather than plastic caps for its shampoo and other products, company officials told the newspaper.

"We realized there was a lot of plastic pollution in our waterways and oceans that causes a lot of death of marine life," said Evan Miller, director of new and environmental media for the Aveda.

"We were so excited that something good came out of something that was so bad," Troop 1050 leader Melissa Wulfeck of Cold Spring, Ky., told the Enquirer.