Wildlife and what we throw away
Plastics have only been around since the 1950s. Now they seem to be everywhere – from shopping bags and food wrapping, to toothbrushes and make-up containers. And plastic doesn't go away. The average plastic shopping bag is used for about 18 minutes, but can take between 49 and 1,000 years to break down. This plastic waste accounts for 80% of all marine litter, causing the deaths of at least one million seabirds and about 100,000 seals, sea lions, whales, dolphins and sea turtles every year. This session will help you to understand that there's no such thing as 'throw away' and that we need to reduce the amount of plastic we use, as well as to reuse and recycle.
Share your stories
Let us know what you think of this resource, what you found a challenge and what you enjoyed. Share your success stories of how you are changing the world.
Design a bag competition
Design the perfect 'bag for life' in our competition for the chance to win some WWF prizes and your very own bags.
Downloads
Throw away
These activities have been grouped around ideas to help you motivate, make the links and go deeper on issues connected to plastic waste and the marine environment. Download all throw away activities (PDF 522KB)
Challenges
Active and fun, these One Planet Challenges are designed to help you take action around the theme of packaging. Throw away challenge (PDF 244KB)
Celebrate success!
Download this Certificate to recognise your unit's efforts and achievements in tackling issues connected to packaging. Throw away certificate (PDF 141KB)