Plastic Pollution Coalition: plastic-free school resources and campus manual
A curated K–12 resource index plus the illustrated Plastic-Free Campus Manual (2024) for colleges and universities.
Schools and teachers
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Stainless steel lunchbox instead of cling film and zip bags
A steel lunchbox and bottle replace a daily set of wrap, bags and cutlery for a school child or worker for years.
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Skip glitter and microbead products
Glitter and microbeads are microplastic by design; rinse-off microbeads have been banned in the UK since 2018 and the EU is phasing out loose…
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Skip balloons and plastic party kit
Balloons, plastic tableware and single-use decorations are used for hours; paper bunting, real plates and no balloon releases avoid the lot.
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Refillable pens and plastic-free school supplies
A pencil case of disposable pens, plastic pockets and laminated sheets adds up; refillable pens, paper folders and wooden rulers last years.
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Avoid bamboo-fibre melamine tableware
Reusable bamboo-fibre cups and plates are melamine plastic that can leach formaldehyde; the EU withdrew them in 2021 and the UK still sells them.
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The ‘450 years to degrade’ claim has no source; here is what is measured
The only systematic review of plastic degradation rates found an HDPE bottle would take about 58 years at sea for half of it to…
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The Great Pacific Garbage Patch is a plastic soup, not an island
At least 79,000 tonnes of plastic drift across 1.6 million square kilometres, and nearly half the mass is abandoned fishing nets.
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Plastic bottles and caps overtake cigarette butts as the top beach litter
Ocean Conservancy’s 40th International Coastal Cleanup logged 1.3 million plastic bottles and 886,000 caps in a single year.