The cost of convenience
Today we produce about 400 million tonnes of plastic per year! But what is plastic and where does it come from? We are headed to Vancouver, British Columbia to find out how and why plastic is made, and learn about the many ways we use it. Clean up the beach with Jay and Tanya from Ocean Wise, and learn how plastic ends up in our ocean and waterways.
7 min
video
Media
Activity
Scavenger hunt: Plastic is all around us. In this activity, students begin by listing as many plastic objects around them as they can in 1 min. Then they identify which items are single-use plastics, and use their critical thinking skills to suggest ways those items can be reused. In the second part of the activity, students learn about four types of plastic: clear, opaque, rigid and flexible and photograph examples of each type. After identifying single-use items, they then reflect on how plastic can be categorized in more than one way.
