Explore Plastics in your Environment

Zero Waste
Written By Kim Manunui

Plastic is everywhere! It doesn’t biodegrade. It just breaks down into smaller and smaller pieces called microplastics. These are terrible for our environment and very difficult to clean up. Animals ingest these microplastics and then we eat some of these animals!

Do you think that your local environment is clean and plastic free? You might be surprised. If you live near a lake or beach, collect a large container of sand off the shore and check for microplastics. What can you find? Can you work out what the original plastic item was? Can you think of an alternative that we could use that would biodegrade? You might like to make a biodegradability garden to investigate this further.

In Taupo, we like to think that our lake is pretty clean, so we were shocked when we did this investigation. You can see the picture of all the plastic that we found. We glued it onto a poster and put it up in our classroom to show others.

Click HERE to learn more about plastic in our lake and to find lots of learning activities to go along with this one. This wonderful resource was made by our friend Krysia, from Taupo for Tomorrow.

Teachers:

This activity is a great idea for the immersion phase of an inquiry into single use plastic or zero waste. It is perfect to do alongside the biodegradability garden activity. Click HERE to see how to teach through inquiry learning, including examples of zero waste/single use plastic inquiry units.

Kim Manunui

Hi, I’m Kim and I work with a great team to help individuals, as well as small and not so small businesses get their message, product and services to the world using digital media and creating wonderful websites that don’t cost the earth.

I was born in Canada, and grew up around Vancouver and the mountains of British Columbia. My love of pristine environments led me to New Zealand and eventually to the mountains, lakes and rivers of the central North Island which is home. My family’s heritage is here, and it’s from here that Korio traverses the planet.

The digital world is never static and neither are we.

And I say ‘we’ because I work with an awesome group of talented people who I gather together as required to complete a project.  Whatever your business, not-for-profit or individual needs are we gather the best team to get the job done.

Collaboratively we are creative, share sustainable values and work hard for great outcomes because that’s the buzz of satisfaction that drives us.

If you have an audience and market to reach, we can make that happen. Creative design, words that work and smart behind the scenes stuff that cuts through the online noise. We’ll design your website and then build it. We’ll manage the content as well as all your hosting needs. We can handle your online advertising so you get noticed,
and we’ll manage your social media presence so you get the clicks, likes and engagement to grow your business. All within the budget you set, because none of this needs to cost the earth.  And the job doesn’t stop when your website goes live. We are your virtual business partner.

https://www.korio.co.nz
Previous

Adopt a Gully or Greenspace
Next

Get Trapping and Learn about Introduced Predators