Watch: Sustainability and plastics
What does sustainability mean?
If something is sustainable, it can be carried on for a long period of time.
Being sustainable means doing little or no harm to the environment.
Throwing plastic bags away is not sustainable because the planet will eventually run out of landfill space.
What is single-use plastic?
- Some plastic objects are only used once then thrown away. These are called single-use plastics.
- This includes things such as plastic bags, bottles, straws and crisp packets.
These objects cannot be recycled and can take hundreds of years to biodegrade.
It is not sustainable to keep on using them - and if we do, we could permanently harm the environment.
- Plastic harms animals and wildlife in rivers, lakes and oceans.
- To help the planet, people can:
- recycle
- reduce packaging
- reuse things such as bottles.
Where does all the plastic go?
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What is recycling?
When something is recycled it is reused or turned into something else.
Materials such as glass, metal and paper are quite easy to recycle and certain types of plastic are too.
Objects that aren鈥檛 recycled are taken to landfill sites.
These are places where rubbish gets buried and left to rot away and biodegrade.
Activity: Quiz 鈥 Sustainability and plastics
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