Title: ECO-CHALLENGE: Plastic // Recycle
Course: GG 22/23 Leuphana-Copy > Section: 2.1 Plastic // Recycle

Now that you have learned about the challenges and measures in the case study, take a look at your own community.

Your guiding question should be: What are challenges that your community (family, friends, school, town/city) faces concerning the module topic? Or are there any best practices that you can find, explore and share? Then:

1. Research

- Narrow your problem down to something feasible
- formulate  assumptions (hypotheses)
- develop a suitable research method, plan your research, and carry it out. Remember, small is beautiful (and easier to handle)!
- As a scientist you should try to communicate your questions, methods and findings in a way that can be controlled and replicated by others.

2. Draw a conclusion

- Think about how your assumptions have been met or not.
- Interpret your findings and come to a tentative statement.
- As you have studied only a small part of reality, be careful to generalize your findings too much.

3. Develop an action plan

- What does it take to fix the problem?
- What resources do we have?
- What resources do we need?
- How can we get these resouces?
- What can we actually contribute to solving the problem?

4. Document your eco-challenge - be creative!

Document your approach and findings well, e.g. in a
- One-minute video
- Short PowerPoint presentation
- Poster
- Photo diary

5. Present your Eco-Challenge to your class

- Be brief (roughly 10 minutes)
- Get feedback

6. Upload your Eco-Challenge into the DATABASE

DATABASE: Eco-challenges - Plastic // Recycle in the Virtual Town Hall.

7. ALL:  Vote on ONE Eco-Challenge to submit to the competition.

- Which is the best? The most realistic to implement? The one you would join?
- Review the eco-challenge everybody agrees upon and suggest final changes

Go to Section 3. Your sustainability action plan and follow the instructions to upload your courses action plan.
TASK: Sustainability project

Need some help? Here are some eco-challenge suggestions for Plastic // Recycle:

The pros and cons of plastic

Plastic was certainly not invented to harm the ocean and produce huge gyres which threaten fish and men. On the contrary - it was supposed to make life easier. Plastic can be very light, but nevertheless strong. It is easy to produce. It does not require huge amounts of wood or other natural material for the production like paper does.

Investigate:

- When do you (and your family) prefer to use plastic? Why?
- Are there alternatives which are more sustainable?

To deepen your investigation you can compare different ways of doing the same thing, e.g.

- keeping different kinds of groceries fresh in the fridge
- transporting fluid, damp or wet things while travelling
- transporting fresh raspberries (strawberries, gooseberries,…) home from the store
- ....

Do not forget, that your tests must be fair and repeatable. And do not forget that there may be reasons which speak in favor of plastic.

You can extend your research in several ways:

- Ask the local shopkeeper why he/she sells so much food in plastic cases. He/She might have reasons which are difficult to refute. Or can you do so?
- Ask your grandparents what they are using for the activities you investigate. Have they changed their habits over time? Why?

Bio(-degradable) plastics?

There are more and more plastic bags which are called "bio-degradable" or at least "bio". They are produced from natural material like corn starch and are said to degrade to compost quite easily and without harmful residues. But starch dissolved in water may thicken your sauce, but not coagulate to a bag. There must be something else - more ingredients, a specific process or method. Is this "else" also bio-degradable?

To decide whether bio-degradable plastic bags are a sustainable alternative to "normal" plastic, you can make your own investigation, e.g.:

- Collect different kinds of plastic bags and containers which are called "bio" or "bio-degradable".
- Test them with criteria that you find important for your everyday use, e.g.
  - carrying capacity, net weight
  - resistance to water, oil, sharp edges of goods
  - reusability
  - ...
- If you happen to have a compost heap in your garden or in the school garden, watch your plastic degrade. How does it change? How long does it take?
- Be sure to make a "fair test".
- Complement your findings with more scientific information from the web and/or from research literature.
- When you look at your findings - what are the consequences for you?

Past ways of transporting groceries

When your grandparents were children, plastic was not used in daily life:

- Fresh milk was carried in metal cans or glass bottles.
- Fruits and vegetables were placed into paper bags and then carried in tote or string bags.
- For the preservation of food one used specific jars and metal tins and the process of heating the food had to be controlled very seriously.

Interview your grandparents about their habits 50 - 60 years ago. Test, if this can be alternatives to the use of plastic today.