Plastics and sustainability

A set of 4 lessons produced by the Environment Agency to help teach about plastic pollution.

​The Plastics team of the Environment Agency have produced a set of resources for teachers and other professionals to teach primary school children about the plastic pollution problem and to help children realise that we all have a part to play in making plastic pollution a thing of the past.​

The focus of these resources is the marine environment. This is the final destination for much of the plastic waste that enters our rivers.

The resources can be downloaded below and are divided into different Key stages:
Key Stage 1 Lower (Year 1, children aged 5-6),
Key Stage 1 Upper (Year 2, children aged 6-7),
Key Stage 2 Lower (Year 3/4, children aged 7-9),
Key Stage 2 Upper (Year 5/6, children aged 9-11).

School resources pack for teaching Lower KS1 children (Year 1) about plastic pollution through an interactive workshop that should take 1-1.5 hours.

Learning objectives:
- To be able to describe some of the effects of plastic on animals and the environment.
- To give an example of how everyone can help to make plastic pollution a thing of the past.

School resources pack for teaching Upper KS1 children (Year 2) about plastic pollution through an interactive workshop that should take 1-1.5 hours.

Learning objectives:
- Describe what a habitat is;
- Explain some of the problems that plastic can cause in the environment.

School resources pack for teaching Lower KS2 children (Year 3/4) about plastic pollution through an interactive workshop that should take 1-1.5 hours.

Learning objectives:
- To understand that plastic can enter the environment in a number of ways which can cause harm to a number of organisms.
- Be able to understand how their choices can reduce the amount of plastic entering environment.

School resources pack for teaching Upper KS2 children (Year 5/6) about plastic pollution through an interactive workshop that should take 1-1.5 hours.

Learning objectives:
-​To understand how to conduct a scientific survey in the field
- To apply previous knowledge to solve a new problem

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