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Students will review and refresh their knowledge of recycling and the negative effects on the environment without recycling best practices. They will also be introduced to the concept of “waste leakage” as a result of not recycling and mismanagement of recyclables. They will work in small groups or individually to create a “Waste Hero” character and design a poster that will be used to convey a PSA (Public Service Announcement) message to inform, inspire, and encourage recycling at school.

Students will receive a handout to create their character, then design their PSA poster and place the message around the school.

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Display the lesson slides for the class and create a discussion about what they already know about recycling and introduce the concept or waste leakage and ocean bound waste. Ask students the guiding questions in the PowerPoint slide notes. In this powerpoint, you will find optional slides (on DRS for instance). If this system works in your country, do no hesitate to present them !

Print out the “YES/NO” handout and the “Create Your Waste Hero” handout.

Gather all kinds of art supplies and poster boards or A3 size paper (1 per group or per student).

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Lesson Prep & Curriculum Alignment

Prep time: 10 – 15 minutes

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Key Learning Outcomes and Curriculum Alignment:

Science - Earth and Human Activity: Communicate solutions that will reduce the impact of humans on the land, water, air, and/or other living things in the local environment. Things that people do can affect the world around them. But they can make choices that reduce their impacts on the land, water, air, and other living things. The goal is to make the students involved and to help them realize the impact on the environment they can have on their everyday lives by managing correctly their waste by questioning them on how things are done in their home for instance.
English Language Arts and Literacy: Participate in collaborative conversations with diverse partners about topics and texts. Follow agreed-upon rules for discussions. Use words and phrases acquired through conversations, reading and being read to, and responding to texts.

SDG Alignment

Lesson Prep & Curriculum Alignment

Prep time: 10 – 15 minutes

Lesson plans are designed to be flexible and responsive to the evolving needs of your classroom. Lessons are editable and customizable to meet the different individual student and classroom contexts. A PowerPoint version with teacher instructions and a printable PDF lesson are available for download.

Flexible and adaptive lesson

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The Lesson

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Introduce the lesson to your students by asking about their knowledge of what can and cannot be recycled and do the icebreaker exercise. Display the “YES/NO” slide or print the handout as a reference.

Create an open discussion about the basics of recycling.
Do you recycle? What is the proportion of recyclable waste in your house?
What can be recycled?
What cannot be recycled?
Are your recyclable waste collected by your city?
Ask for them to give a few examples of each.

Lesson duration: 45 - 60 minutes

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Introduce the concept of waste leakage and create a discussion about how our waste can enter the ocean, even if we do not live by the ocean. Display the slides explaining how waste enters our oceans from land. Do not hesitate to add some data focused on your country (for instance, if you are leaving next to the sea/ocean what is the situation of your sea/ocean, how trash are collected in your city, etc)

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Let students know they will create a “Waste Hero” superhero, and a posterboard PSA (Public Service Announcement) to be hung up at their school. Break into groups or work independently to create a school PSA (Public Service Announcement) message to inspire and empower people to recycle at school.

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Prepare the PowerPoint presentation

When you are ready to present the lessons to your class click on Slide Show on the top menu bar then select Presenter View. In Presenter view, you can see your notes as you present while the audience see only your slides.

The notes appear in a pane on the right. The text should wrap automatically, and a vertical scroll bar appears if necessary. You can also change the size of the text in the Notes pane by using the two buttons at the lower left corner of the Notes pane.

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YES

NO

Glass jar

PET Plastic bottle

Metal can

Cardboard box

Banana peel

Dirty napkin

Light bulb

Juice box

Toys

Plastic bag

Pencil

Shoes

Garden hose

(Slide duration: 3-5 minutes)

Pre-lesson Icebreaker Exercise

Ask students:

Has anyone heard of recycling? If yes, please share with the class what they know.

Tell students:

Recycling is the process of collecting and processing materials that would otherwise be thrown away as trash and turning them into new products. Recycling can benefit your community and the environment.

Now read off the images left to right starting on the top row to test their knowledge about what items displayed can and cannot be recycled.

Order of images that will appear with each click.

Click 1: Glass jar

Click 2: PET Plastic Bottle

Click 3: Shoes

Click 4: Metal can

Click 5: Light bulb

Click 6: Juice box

Click 7: Dirty napkin

Click 8: Pencil

Click 9: Plastic bag

Click 10: Toys

Click 11: Cardboard box

Click 12: Garden hose

Click 13: Banana peel

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YES

NO

Always recycle:

Never recycle:

Glass jar

PET Plastic bottle

Cardboard box

Metal can

Banana peel

Dirty napkin

Light bulb

Juice box

Toys

Plastic bag

Pencil

Shoes

Garden hose

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Ocean Waste

(Slide duration: 3-5 minutes)

Tell students:

Waste accumulating in our oceans and on our beaches has become a global crisis. Billions of pounds of waste can be found in swirling convergences around our oceans. At current rates waste is expected to outweigh all the fish in the sea by 2050.

Pollution has a direct and deadly effect on wildlife. Thousands of seabirds and sea turtles, seals and other marine mammals are killed each year after ingesting waste or getting entangled in it.

Click 1:

There is so much ocean waste that it collects along shorelines and accumulates in huge garbage patches in the middle of the ocean. The south pacific garbage patch seen here in red is the world’s largest accumulation of waste. It is 2x times the size of the American state of Texas. This is a result of human generated waste entering the ocean and getting caught in currents that sends the waste flowing in circles in the middle of the ocean.

Click 2:

There is an estimated 80,000 metric tons of waste in this one garbage patch, which is the equivalent to…

Click 3:

500 jumbo jets.

Ask students:

Why is there so much waste in our oceans?

What do you think about the pacific garbage patch?

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How does waste enter the ocean?

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Waste leakage is when our waste does not get recycled or enter a landfill and leaks into our natural environment.

Most waste in

the ocean comes

from humans on land.

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Nearly half of the world's turtles have eaten plastic waste.

How much ocean waste is mistakenly eaten by ocean animals?

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1. People leave waste on the ground

or it falls from a trash bin.

2. When it rains waste flows into

storm drains.

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3. The storm drain feeds into

local waterways.

4. Those waterways then feed

into local rivers.

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5. Rivers flow into the ocean.

6. Ocean currents send waste around the world and create “waste islands”.

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How do we prevent ocean waste?

Practice The 3 Steps to Recycling

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Know what you can recycle

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Empty, clean, and dry before putting in the bin.

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Put recyclables into the correct recycling bin.

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Recycling Tips we can share to inspire others to recycle.

Find the #1 on the bottom of plastic bottles and recycle it. #1 PET plastic bottles are fully recyclable.

Recycle items into the correct recycling bin where you see the recycling symbol.

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Recycling Tips we can share to inspire others to recycle.

Do not put food in the recycling bin. Wet and dirty recycling items cannot be collected.

Use less single use materials like plastic bags and plastic straws we only use one time.

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Recycling Tips we can share to inspire others to recycle

Some Countries have Direct Return Schemes (DRS), these are return stations where both PET plastic bottles and glass bottles can be return.

Depending on the country and DRS in place Glass and PET Plastic may have to be returned separately.

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Some data on Direct Return Schemes (DRS)

97% of surveyed beaches were littered with drinks-related items in 2023 (Marine Conservation Society)

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DRS tip

Find the DRS or Return Machine for your PET bottle, glass bottle or can.

Recycle items into the return stations in a store or a recycling centers.

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Recycling is separating !

Each time you recycle a glass bottle or a PET bottle, make sure to take off every tag and cap !

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Create a “Waste Hero” Superhero

and a “Call to Action” Poster

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How to create your “Waste Hero” PSA for your school.

Steps

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Identify your audience. Who will see your poster at school?

Steps

2

Create your “Waste Hero” superhero. “Recycle Man or Bottle Woman?”

Steps

3

Create your message about why we need to recycle (Problem & Recycling Tip).

Steps

4

Identify where to post the poster board PSA message at school to inspire others to recycle.

Tell students:

Introduce the class exercise and follow the 4 steps to create a “Waste Hero” public service announcement to motivate and inspire students in the school to take action. The ”Waste Hero” they create will have a main message about recycling they want to share with the class to get them to change their behavior for the betterment of the planet. Here is how they will create their “Waste Hero” superhero:

Step 1: Who do you want to communicate your recycling message to at school? Other students? Teachers and staff? Who will see your poster? Communicate your message with them in mind.

Step 2: Think of Spiderman or Batman and create your character based on their mission. What do they represent? Spiderman is influenced by spiders and Batman bats. What about your waste hero? Recycleman? Bottle woman? Wastefighter?

Step 3: What message do you want to spread? Are you sharing recycling tips? Do you want to share how waste in the environment is hurting the planet and animals we eat?

Some ideas: Teach people the 3 steps to recycling. Prevent plastic from entering the oceans through recycling. Use less single use materials.

Step 4: Where in your school can you hang your poster where your target audience will see it?

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