A Note for Teachers

• Facing History and Ourselves is an educational charity providing teaching resources to help young people develop as empathetic, critical thinkers, who understand the role they can play in shaping society for the better. We believe that civic agency is developed through intellectual rigour, emotional engagement and ethical reflection. Learn more about us on our website.

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• This PowerPoint presentation has been created to be used in a KS3-4 or S1-4 assembly on Plastic Free July.

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• While you may need to modify this presentation to meet the needs of your students, please note that Facing History and Ourselves does not endorse your changes that alter the presentation's content or original layout.

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Plastic Free July�Assembly

Facing History UK Assemblies

#Changestartswithme

Essential Question

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What is Plastic Free July and why does it matter?

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#Changestartswithme

Plastic Free July

What is Plastic Free July?

Naja Bertolt

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What is Plastic Free July?

• Plastic Free July is a global campaign to try and encourage people to reduce their plastic usage.
• This is to help make our streets, communities, green spaces and oceans are cleaner places.
• During Plastic Free July, you can choose to refuse to use single use plastics.
• The theme this year is ‘Small Steps, Big Difference.’
• Plastic Free July asks you to give up one type of single use plastic for July. If everyone agrees to do this, it can have a huge impact on the planet.

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Source: plastic free.org

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Can you take on the Plastic Free challenge?

Naja Bertolt

Plastic Free July

What is Plastic Free July?

1. What type of plastics does plastic free July focus on?
2. How can we make a change for plastic free July?
3. Name 1 change you can make to go plastic free.
4. Where can you do plastic free July?

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Watch this video and answer the questions.

How Much Plastic do we Use?

• The weight of global plastics has reached an estimated 460 million metric tons in recent years.
• 50% of single use plastics are used for just minutes and then thrown away.
• 1 million plastic bottles are purchased every minute worldwide, while up to five trillion plastic bags are used a year.
• Is there anything you find surprising or troubling about this information?

Hermes Rivera

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Single and Reusable Plastics

Single use plastics are things that can only be used once and then need to be thrown away.

Examples of single use plastics are plastic carrier bags, straws and disposable cups.

Reusable plastics are a type of plastic that can be used many times, over some time.

Examples of reusable plastics are: water bottles, shopping bags, food containers, cutlery, specific home cleaning and personal care products.

However, reusable plastics may still only be used once before they are thrown away.

Hermes Rivera

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Plastics in the Ocean

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GRT communities?

• 10 million tonnes of plastic is dumped in our oceans every year.
• 1 million marine animals are killed by plastic pollution every year.
• There will be more plastics in our oceans than fish by the year 2050.

Watch this video and think about the questions below:

1. How do plastics get into the ocean?
2. How can we stop plastics getting into the ocean?

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Source and Video: Greenpeace

Microplastics

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• Microplastics are plastic pieces that measure less than five millimetres.
• Some microplastics have been made small intentionally, for example, industrial abrasives used in sandblasting and microbeads in facial scrubs.
• Others have formed by breaking away from larger plastics such as carrier bags, which have fragmented over time.
• A single fleece jacket sheds up to 250,000 microfibers during a single wash.
• Microplastics can have a damaging effect on health and the environment as they are so small and therefore harder to trace and avoid.

Sources: Natural History museum and Earth day

How Can We Help in Our School?

‘Schools are often a great base for broader change. Many students and teachers start to adopt plastic free practices in their everyday lives outside of school, too.’

You as students can have a big impact and make a difference:

• Approach the canteen to reduce plastic.
• Help a school event (e.g. disco, fete or carnival) to go plastic free.
• Review the stationery list and suggest plastic free alternatives.
• Review what the school buys and add in plastic free requirements/ alternatives.

Can you select one of the following changes you think our school could make? Or do you have any other suggestions?

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Plastic Free July

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Small Steps Big Change

This year’s Plastic Free July campaign focuses on the small changes each of us can make to reduce plastic waste under the slogan “Small steps, big difference”.

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Choose one single use plastic to avoid or take the pledge to avoid single use cups, plastic drink bottles, or plastic food wrap. These “Top 3” items we commonly use each day can be easily replaced by:

• Refilling reusable water bottles from the tap;
• Bringing a reusable cup or sitting and enjoying a real cup;
• Switching from plastic wrap to reusable containers or wax wraps.

Plastic Free July

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Exit Ticket

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Take a moment to think about:

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1. One thing your school can do to make a small change.

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• One type of plastic you might choose to give up this July.

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• Why it is important to participate in Plastic Free July?

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