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.

In this investigation, students design and create a Recycling Sorting Machine to eliminate the amount of waste that is incorrectly being sent to landfill. Students use basic resources (recycled and/or reused items in the classroom, home, or their community) to engineer a solution to the growing problem of waste in our schools.

Plastic is ubiquitous and a material that many of us take for granted, especially single-use plastics. While plastic offers convenience and versatility, we have to consider that every piece of plastic ever made still exists on the planet. Philippe Cousteau meets with Mark Rodrigue from Parks Victoria at the Marine and Freshwater Discovery Centre, and biologist and filmmaker Sheree Marris, to learn more about the unique ecosystem of southern Australian. Dive in with Philippe and fur seals and more in Port Phillip Bay.

Philippe Cousteau meets with Dr. Kate Charlton-Robb, the founding director of The Marine Mammal Foundation, to explore how marine ecosystems--specifically a unique population of dolphin--are impacted by plastic. From marine mammals to seabirds, plastic has a variety of impacts that Philippe examines with Dr. Jenn Lavers, who studies the health of seabirds through some unusual sampling methods.

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.