Notre Dame School
Science Fair 2020 Adriana Teles
Gabriela Rodriguez
Emilie Darius
Miranda Casimiro
Camila Olivero
Grade/Section: 6B
Teacher: Anne Rivas
Santo Domingo, 2020
INTRODUCTION
People likely don’t need to look far to see examples of how single-use plastics like
straws, plastic bags, and plastic water bottles are damaging the environment. Often
times, single-use plastic can be replaced with non-plastic alternatives. Here are
some ways you can we encourage to reflect on how much plastic we use and how
we can reduce plastic consumption.
Plastic is versatile, lightweight, flexible, moisture resistant, strong, and relatively
inexpensive. Those are the attractive qualities that lead us, around the world, to
such a voracious appetite and over-consumption of plastic goods. However,
durable and very slow to degrade, plastic materials that are used in the production
of so many products all, ultimately, become waste with staying power. Our
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tremendous attraction to plastic, coupled with an undeniable behavioral propensity
of increasingly over-consuming, discarding, littering and thus polluting, has
become a combination of lethal nature.
BACKGROUND
For more than 50 years, global production and consumption of plastics have
continued to rise. An estimated 299 million tons of plastics were produced in 2013,
representing a 4 percent increase over 2012, and confirming and upward trend over
the past years. In 2008, our global plastic consumption worldwide has been
estimated at 260 million tons.
Straws, plastic water bottles, and plastic bags belong to a group of materials known
as single-use plastics. Here are some facts that show how ubiquitous single-use
plastics have become:
• Each minute 1,000,000 plastic bottles are purchased worldwide.
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• In the United States alone, we purchase 50 billion plastic bottles each year.
• An estimated 4 trillion plastic bags are used worldwide each year.
• Americans throw away 100 billion plastic bags each year, which equates to about
306 plastic bags per person.
The consumption of plastic in our planet is
enormous, and the damage that it causes is lethal for
our environment. therefore, we have to promote the
OBJECTIVES reduce of using plastic, doing campaigns of
conscience that there are an increasing number of
plastic-free alternatives that are much kinder to our
planet and bringing to others ideas of ways to avoid
the use of plastic.
BIG QUESTION
• How can each individual in the community be envolved in
the prevention of plástic consumption?
HYPOTHESIS
If we start by ourselves, we can impact or give an example
for other people, to avoid the consumption of plastic.
PROCEDURE
1. We planned a litter collection day.
We started by collecting litter in the park. We wanted also
join forces with other classrooms, get the whole school
involved, or even work with local municipalities and
community action groups to spread the word and take part in
a bigger cleanup can use their data to write a press release
for school social media, or post our efforts on social media
with the hashtags #TrashChallenge #Trashtag.
PROCEDURE
2. We prompt a discussion.
With younger students from school we planned to discuss
how our actions can have positive or negative impacts on
those around us to reflect on their experiences doing the
neighborhood cleanup: What was it like to see all the trash in
the neighborhood? Was there anything you found that we
could recycle or stop using entirely? What are some ways
you could make a difference in reducing plastic pollution and
keeping the school ground/neighborhood clean?
PROCEDURE
2. We prompt a discussion.
With older students from school first lead them in the
activity “Source Reduction” in which they learn about the
importance of not generating waste in the first place as they
analyze products in terms of packaging, waste generated, and
toxicity. Then have them reflect on this statement:
“Nothing we use for a few minutes should be allowed to
pollute our rivers and oceans for hundreds of years –
especially items we don’t really need.”
PROCEDURE
3. Research the pros and cons of using plastic
In 1907 plastic was dubbed “the material of a thousand uses” by Leo Baekeland, the
inventor of the first completely synthetic plastic. Every choice we make has trade-offs.
Some plastics are beneficial and life-saving and others are potentially unnecessary and
contribute to the pollution of our environment.
We are going to make a poster or presentation showing all the ways we benefit from
using plastic and how it can potentially harm the environment.
Are there any plastic products where the benefits outweigh the possible negative
environmental impacts? Are there any plastic products we might be able to reduce or
eliminate?
What do we do with plastic at the end of its life? Is recycling a good option for the
different types of plastics? Why or why not?
What we can do, to promote a change?
Inspiring students to start a campaign in our school reducing the
use of plastic bottles.
Inspire students to Interview with school
organize a campaign to principal to request support in
reduce the use of the no plastic bottles at school
single-use plastics at campaign help students
school especially develop an understanding of
plastic bottles how individual and collective
actions can affect the waste
stream.
What we can do, to promote a change?
Create posters for at school and at home with our families.
Encourage everybody at school and in our family to spread the word about
what we all can do to reduce or eliminate the single-use plastic products in
our lives. We are going to make posters or signs for school and at home to
serve as a reminder of why it’s important to reduce our plastic consumption
and what alternatives are available. The posters will include facts, photos,
comics, or memes – whatever they think will inspire people to think twice
and change their habits!
What we can do, to promote a change?
Keep a journal of single-use plastics.
We are going to research and analyze the energy and materials – including single-use
plastic – that go into making a favorite object. Ask students at school to keep a journal of
the single-use plastics they use over the course of a week.
To take it a step further, ask students to collect all the single-use plastic products they used
throughout the week and bring their collection to class at the end of the week. That type of
visual can make a big impression on students and would be a great discussion starter. You
could also encourage your students to create an art piece with the plastic they collected
throughout the week to make a statement that the whole school or community can see.
What we can do, to promote a change?
Make a pledge
We will ask students to consider making a pledge for them and for the environment.
Choose one single-use plastic that they will try to avoid using now and in the future.
We started a bottle plastic free campaign.
What we can do, to promote a change?
Request that supplier deliveries are plastic-free as part as school
campaign and for our families.
As with most organizations, one of the largest sources of plastic waste in
schools comes from supplier deliveries. This is easier to impact than you may
think. The first step is to raise it with your suppliers and ask them to please
deliver plastic-free wherever possible. You are unlikely to be the first school to
request this, but if they hear it from lots of schools, it adds weight to your
requests.
What we can do, to promote a change?
With our school as support Share our successes, to inspire other
schools too.
Once we have found what has worked to enable your school to significantly reduce
single-use plastic waste, it’s good to promote your successes – both within the
school community to thank and reward colleagues, parents and students for all
their efforts and externally with other schools and organizations to share how we
did it and hopefully inspire them to take action too. This is how you can have a
game-changing positive impact on the ocean plastic problem, by being a leader
that inspires others to take action too.
CONCLUSION
One of the best ways to get people engaged with the issue is to let them see for
themselves the scale of the problem; how the plastic they use in their everyday lives
is spilling out into nature. Organizing regular clean up events – on our school
premises, or at a local park, river or beach – is a brilliant bonding exercise for
classes, the whole school, or your entire community.
We may find organizing clean-ups have added benefits that go beyond simply having
less plastic waste in your local area. Also enhance relationships with parents and
local businesses, and provide an excellent opportunity to model to children how we
all need to take responsibility for our local environment, rather than leaving the mess
for someone else to clean up.
CONCLUSION
The secret to success is to refuse to take ‘no’ for an answer. The trial was a success
and actually resulted in less food waste as well as less plastic, so we agreed to make
it permanent and are considering rolling it out to other schools. If you don’t, ask you
don’t get! In this instance, asking could result in a ripple effect of positive change if
your supplier agrees to reduce plastic packaging for you and all their other customers
too. If they won’t consider making changes, you can always consider changing
suppliers.
With our school as support, share our
successes, to inspire other schools too.
Once we have found what has worked to enable your school to significantly
reduce single-use plastic waste, it’s good to promote your successes – both
within the school community to thank and reward colleagues, parents and
students for all their efforts and externally with other schools and
organizations to share how we did it and hopefully inspire them to take
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action too. This is how you can have a game-changing positive impact on
the ocean plastic problem, by being a leader that inspires others to take
action too.
Thank You