As the name suggests, microbeads are very small (microscopic) beads of plastic. Since they are particles of less than 1mm, they are almost impossible to capture as they enter household drains. This leaves these small, solid balls of plastic to enter our aquatic ecosystems where they are ingested by organisms and accumulated within the food web. In this activity, students are challenged to design and construct their own device to extract microplastics from cosmetic products such as facial cleansers, body wash, and toothpaste.

Students will follow the engineering design process to explore solutions to the overwhelming plastic packaging problem. They will develop sustainable designs that will consider alternatives to plastic packaging in items like juice boxes, plastic straws, bin liners, and single-use take-away/take-out containers.

Students examine the nature of the problem and work collaboratively to create solutions to the issue of nurdles becoming evermore present in our oceans. Nurdles are small plastic resin pellets which are used to make many of the plastics we use every day. Unfortunately, they end up where they are not supposed to and cause a wide range of problems. Nurdle Know-How is a series of activities that will ultimately prepare students to design and build a nurdle capture system to clean up their local bay, harbor, or coastal waters.

Sheree Marris is a marine biologist, author, and documentary filmmaker. Sheree has just finished her fifth book, Melbourne Down Under a stunning photographic book that reveals Melbourne’s best-kept secret – a marine environment more diverse and colorful than any tropical reef. Learn more about her career and hear advice on how to get started.

In this investigation, students describe the life cycle of man-made products that include or originate from plastic to evaluate how they may impact the environment. Students use a basic life cycle assessment – similar to assessments used by process engineers – that allows them to identify and order the different steps in the life cycle of a product. Using their analyses to compare the impacts of different products, students develop ideas to reduce the environmental impact of the production process or lifecycle of the product.

All of the plastic that we as humans have made is still somewhere on the planet, so what solutions exist to help not only remove up from places where it is causing damage but also repurpose the ubiquitous material? Philippe Cousteau hears from experts, including Donna Shiel from Sustainability Victoria, Heidi Taylor from Tangaroa Blue, Anthony Hill from Plastic Pollution Solutions, and staff from the Melbourne Zoo about what options are available to replace plastic use and what you can do to help solve the global issues of PlasticSeas.

In order to develop solutions to the challenge of plastic pollution, we must track plastic to its source. Philippe Cousteau travels to the Port Phillip EcoCentre to meet with Baykeeper Neil Blake, who explains how plastics find their way into the Bay. Philippe then hits the water with 5 Gyres Ambassador Blair Stafford to trawl for microplastics.