The commonly asked question “Paper or plastic?” is simply a reflection of how common the use of plastic bags has become. In the United States alone, over a billion plastic bags are given away to customers everyday. Less than 3% of those bags are ever recycled. The rest are destined for the landfill, although many of them never make it there. The bags are so light that they often become airborne and can drift until they become stuck on something or bogged down in water. Those that do make it to the landfill will take as much as a thousand years to degrade.
In this video, a discarded plastic bag, struggling with its immortality, ventures through the environmentally barren remains of America as it searches for its maker.
An accompanying lesson plan focuses student attention on the the issues of waste management and resource use within their own communities.
The video and the accompanying lesson plans are useful resources for student study of issues related to waste management, resource use, human - environmental interaction (Environmental Science, Geography and Social Studies) in particular and to those units dealing with science, technology and society in general.
The accompany lesson plan has students
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