Plastic is all around us and it is, undeniably, incredibly useful. However, it is also toxic and it takes millennia to breakdown. It gets into our waterways, onto our dinner plates, harms and kills mammals, birds and marine life by trapping them or resulting in starvation; fishing nets are made of it, bottles and bags, even the skin cream we use contain micro-plastics (so small we can’t even see them). Our mindless use and disposal of plastic has to stop and we can stop it, if we just change our habits. We know what to do so let’s do it!

In September’s tasks, we will explore ‘The Power of Plastic’:

Task A

We will look at how it gets everywhere and how the natural world is interacting with it – perhaps you have seen a seagull pulling plastic out of a bin and eating it, or a turtle trapped by a plastic 6-pack ring; you may have seen something on the beaches or streets where you live, or you may have seen pictures on the internet. Draw a picture of the image and write some sentences about it. Is the plastic useful to the animal?

Task B

We will find out why we all have so much plastic in our lives. You will decide what questions to ask (for example: ‘Where is the majority of plastic in your home?’, ‘Could you use something instead of plastic?’). Perhaps you could compare old and young people, or people who live in the city to people who live in the countryside. Conduct your surveys (asking people in your family, people in your school, for example) and present you results in graphs and tables. Write a few sentences explaining your findings.

Task C

We will learn about plastic in the UK and in Nepal. We will think about how plastic breaks down compared to other materials and why it takes so long; we will learn about plastic on the streets of Kathmandu and how people there can make money from it. Your task will be to design a product that could be made by women in Kathmandu with locally found waste plastic.