New Name, New Look, New Challenge!

This year's Challenge uses our digital skills to explore SDG #3, Good Health and Well-being.

Start The Challenge!

  • Plastic

  • Where?

  • Rivers

  • Problem

  • Data

  • Global

  • Solution

  • Quiz

  • Share

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Where

Where does all this

plastic waste come from?

Plastic products are everywhere

Now that you’ve seen how much plastic goes to waste, let’s rewind to see how plastic enters our homes.

Plastic really is all around us: it covers the food you eat, holds our liquid products, and is used in many different household items, like brooms, pens, or garbage bags. You might not realize it, but you are using and throwing away plastic every single day!

In fact, Canadians throw away over 3 million tonnes of plastic waste every year.1

Taking a look at where you and your household use plastic in your daily lives can make it easier to find solutions and make a plan to reduce your plastic consumption, helping achieve SDG #12, Responsible Consumption and Production.

Can you find all of the products containing plastic in this image?

Mini Challenge

In this activity, you will have 30 seconds to identify how many items in the grocery store contain plastic. You may be surprised by some of them!

Let’s Reflect…

Now that you’ve taken a closer look inside the grocery store, can you answer these questions?

  1. Can you think of ways plastic could be reduced in the grocery store?
  2. Were you surprised to learn that plastic is used in some of these products?
  3. If you, your household, and your friends start using less plastic, how do you think that contributes to the global plastic waste problem?
Quick Facts!

Did you know?

About one third of the plastic waste in Canada comes from single-use or short-lived products and packaging.2

Well done - you’ve completed the second stage of the challenge! You’re beginning to uncover just how much plastic is in the products you use every day. You can now move on to the Rivers section to see where plastic sometimes ends up when it’s thrown away.

Plastic
Rivers

Take it further

Got some time and want to learn how to make your own version of the ‘spot the plastic’ game?

This extension activity will teach you how to code a timed game in Scratch like the Pop Quiz above.

Keep exploring - Scratch remix!

Spot the plastic - ‘Plastic is everywhere’ project

Learning Objectives

  • Raise awareness of the amount of plastic in our lives.
  • Become familiar with using Scratch to make a game with a timer.
  • Learn how to broadcast messages, duplicate and reuse pieces of code.

Recommended ages

Ages 7+

Recommended duration

20-60 min

Introduction

Make learning fun by creating a game that gets players to explore the world around them and think critically about plastic in the products you use every day.

You will learn how to reuse and recycle code, it’s a powerful way to speed up development and minimize errors. This starter Scratch project will guide you in the process.

Scratch starter project
Scratch finished project
Lesson plan
Keep exploring - Data stories!

source: Plastic Pollution by Hannah Ritchie and Max Roser3

Looking at this data, think about these questions:

General

Look at the items around you right now. Which items came in plastic packaging?

Community

Next time you’re in a store, note all the plastic packaging you see. What do you think its purpose is?

Ethical

Why do companies continue to use plastic packaging and sell single-use plastic products if they know it’s bad for our planet?

Plastic
Rivers

Sources

Want to dive deeper or just explore the sources?

We provide you with all the page sources and references along with additional related resources in one convenient location.

Plastic
Rivers

Due to the interactive nature of the online #kids2030 Challenge platform, it is not supported for mobile. To complete the #kids2030 Challenge, please use a desktop, laptop, or tablet in landscape mode.

Thanks!