Supported by
We want to give you the tools to live a more conscious life with ease, especially right now. A prize from our partners could be yours. Just post on Instagram about your participation in #TGClassroom. Check @TurningGreenOrg for details!
Overview
“It cannot be right to manufacture billions of objects that are used for a matter of minutes, and then are with us for centuries.”
– Roz Savage, Environmental Advocate
Convenience: it’s what drives many products and inventions that we utilize daily, including single-use plastics. Think about the plastic products we use habitually – utensils, plates, beverage cups, grocery bags, water bottles and snack packaging.
We use these goods once and dispose of them. Quick, easy, gone. Out of sight, out of mind. However, if you did keep that plastic in sight, you would most likely follow it to our ecosystems, along with the 300 million tons of plastic consumed each year. Even worse, the millions of tons of plastic waste we generate never truly disappear. According to the Environmental Protection Agency, every piece of plastic ever manufactured still exists today. To put that into perspective, plastic first became commercially manufactured and popular in the 1900s, meaning the plastic bag your great-grandparents or grandparents used may persist in our environment as microplastics, and the plastic bag that carried your takeout will ultimately outlive you and accumulate with the 150 million metric tons of plastic debris that currently floats in our oceans.
Plastic pollution is a gigantic problem for our oceans and the millions of species that call the reefs and open seas their home. As the production of plastics grows exponentially in conjunction with the rapid consumption of single-use plastics, increased amounts of plastic waste enters our life-sustaining oceans, where slivers of water bottles and floating bags are mistaken for food, and abandoned nets and soda can rings trap marine life. At the current rate of plastic use, it is projected that by 2050, there will be more plastic in our oceans, than fish! The Pacific Garbage patch, a gyre (swirling spiral) of marine plastic debris that spans 300 nautical miles acts as a growing reminder of the harmful effects of our consumption habits.
Have you ever thought about plastic’s impact on climate change? Plastic pollution is a major factor in the extraction and release of fossil fuels that contribute to the climate crisis. The entire lifecycle of plastic is fossil fuel-intensive, from petroleum extraction to production to eventual disposal. It is estimated that by 2050, global plastic production will emit 2.75 billion tons of carbon.
It is not only the earth that suffers from plastic waste. Plastic is also hazardous to human health. New studies find that microplastics, tiny pieces of plastic resulting from degraded plastic debris, are in our water and food, a result of the microplastics mistakenly digested by sea life. A 2019 study found that humans ingest around 5 grams of plastic a week, the same amount of plastic as a credit card. Microplastics contain chemicals that have been linked to cancer and a multitude of other health concerns.
Waste has unfortunately become a negative byproduct of our daily lives, but it doesn’t have to be! According to 5 Gyres’s Plastic Ban List, the top six sources of plastic pollution (food wrappers and containers, bottle and container caps, plastic bags, straws and stirrers, and take out containers) all have better alternatives.
While single-use plastics are convenient, and often simple to use and cheap, it’s important to analyze how our usage of these long-lasting products harm our environment – and what convenience truly costs. With a conscious mindset, you can make switches to alternatives that keep plastic from entering ecosystems, or follow easy and actionable steps to reduce consumption of plastic in your lifestyle to ensure that our convenience does not dictate the consequences of the future.
The Story of Stuff team is releasing The Story of Plastics. The informative film launches on Earth Day (tomorrow!) so be sure to watch the film and let us know what you have learned and think!
THINK
When you grab a plastic water bottle from your house or a plastic bag at the store, do you ever stop to wonder about how this item came to be, and how it will impact our lives and the environment? Let’s take a deeper dive into this…
ACTIVITY
Watch this video by Ted-ed to get a better understanding of plastic’s life cycle. Take into account that recycling has been found to be ineffective, as only 9% of plastic is recycled. Instead, think about a story-line where plastic is first eliminated!
- Write down a short summary of the video.
- Include the 3 most interesting ideas/facts that stood out to you in the video.
- If you want, you can sketch a quick diagram or timeline to illustrate a possible plastic life-cycle!
DELIVERABLES
Upload a PDF Document with your responses using the upload button below.
Submission Guidelines
- If you do not see an upload button, you need to log in
- Submit all entries as PDFs; no Word or Pages documents
- Be sure to include all content for your submission in one document
- Do not include # or spaces in filenames
- You will see a confirmation in green that your submission uploaded correctly; if you do not see this confirmation, please try again
- Send any questions to classroom@turninggreen.org
Don’t forget to post about the challenge and your learnings/doings on social media and tag us on Facebook @TurningGreen, on Twitter @TurningGreenOrg, and on Instagram @TurningGreenOrg and use #TGClassroom.
THINK
When we think about plastics, we often think about massive landfills with plastic bags or water bottles. What many of us do not see is the smaller sized plastic particles: these are called microplastics, and they can be extremely dangerous to the health of people, animals, and the planet. What makes them so harmful is that they are too small to notice – it’s hard to solve a problem that people can’t see. Let’s look deeper into the issue of microplastics.
ACTIVITY
Research microplastics and how they affect our lives. Tell us where microplastics come from, why they are harmful, and what solutions are recommended to solve the problem. (250 words)
Check out these resources:
DELIVERABLES
Upload a PDF Document with your responses.
Submission Guidelines
- If you do not see an upload button, you need to log in
- Submit all entries as PDFs; no Word or Pages documents
- Be sure to include all content for your submission in one document
- Do not include # or spaces in filenames
- You will see a confirmation in green that your submission uploaded correctly; if you do not see this confirmation, please try again
- Send any questions to classroom@turninggreen.org
Don’t forget to post about the challenge and your learnings/doings on social media and tag us on Facebook @TurningGreen, on Twitter @TurningGreenOrg, and on Instagram @TurningGreenOrg and use #TGClassroom.
THINK
Now that we have seen that plastic pollution is a crisis that we are all facing, we want you to come up with a solution to this enormous problem facing us all. Global change starts at home, so focus on changes in your everyday lifestyle to address plastic pollution.
ACTIVITY
Research or brainstorm different possibilities for solutions to our plastic pollution problem that you can implement in your own home. Take some notes. Then, pick three of your favorites or make your own!
Things to consider:
- How can you reduce your plastic use? (discuss with your household)
- Where across your lifestyle can you eliminate single-use plastics altogether?
- Where can you substitute reusables? And, what are the alternatives that you would use?
Create a colorful visual explaining the problem and showcasing three of your favorite solutions.
- Address what your solution is
- How you will implement it in your home
- Why it is important or what effect it will have
On your artwork, write a pledge to adopt these practices in your household, or take the pledge with the Plastic Pollution Coalition – make these conscious practices a long-term habit!
Share your artwork on social media to inform others of your pledge, and inspire them to take action too! Tag @TurningGreenOrg with #TGClassroom.
DELIVERABLES
Upload a PDF Document with your artwork and a screenshot of your social media post. Tag @TurningGreenOrg with #TGClassroom.
Submission Guidelines
- If you do not see an upload button, you need to log in
- Submit all entries as PDFs; no Word or Pages documents
- Be sure to include all content for your submission in one document
- Do not include # or spaces in filenames
- You will see a confirmation in green that your submission uploaded correctly; if you do not see this confirmation, please try again
- Send any questions to classroom@turninggreen.org
Don’t forget to post about the challenge and your learnings/doings on social media and tag us on Facebook @TurningGreen, on Twitter @TurningGreenOrg, and on Instagram @TurningGreenOrg and use #TGClassroom.