A Guide for Education Partners to Celebrate

World Environment Day 5 June 2018

Beat Plastic PollutionIf you can’t reuse it, refuse it

#BeatPlasticPollution

This year, with India as host, World Environment Day is calling on people across the world to help Beat Plastic Pollution.

Every year, 8 million tonnes of plastic enter our oceans, threatening marine and human life and destroying our natural ecosystems. We want to work with education partners to help them reconsider their plastic habits, generate solutions and raise awareness.

To Beat Plastic Pollution, we need everyone to step up and think deeply about how they can not only reduce, reuse and recycle, but seek to inspire new behaviour. Our aim is to use World Environment Day to reduce the amount of plastic dumped into our oceans, which is currently around a truckload every minute. This pack is an invitation to collaborate with UN Environment – work with us to take action and inspire teachers, pupils and parents alike, to help turn the tide on plastic!

About World Environment Day

World Environment Day takes place every year on 5 June. It is the United Nations’ flagship day for promoting worldwide awareness and action for the environment. Over the years, it has grown to be one of the largest global platforms for public outreach, celebrated by millions of people in well over 100 countries.

It is the ‘People’s Day’ for doing something positive for the environment. Its aim is to harness individual actions and transform them into a collective power that has a legacy of real and lasting impact on the planet.

The day is celebrated in countless ways, with everything from beach clean-ups and tree planting to calling on staff and partners to get involved and do their bit. It is also a great moment to show your contribution to society. We need your support to make this World Environment Day a success!

Why celebrate World Environment Day?

1 Learn: On the World Environment Day website, you can find lesson plans especially designed for World Environment Day, which we hope will be a great resource for teachers/lecturers. Please feel free to use them!

2 Inspire: Celebrating World Environment Day is a way to inspire students (and parents) on how young people can take action to protect the environment.

3 Be the change: World Environment Day is an opportunity for schools/universities to teach students about single-use plastics and how they can reduce, reuse and recycle. Students can then spread this message to their parents and the wider community.

4 Show and tell: Let the local media know what your school/university is doing to celebrate, share it on social media and register your event on the World Environment Day website so that we can share your activities with the global World Environment Day community.

Principles to help you plan your event

▪ Think of your community: Bring together staff and management at your school/university to brainstorm ideas and activities that could make a difference in your community. What collective impact could you have at the community level?

▪ Have fun and get students involved: Focusing on the next generation is critical to addressing the issue of plastic pollution. Make your event for World Environment Day fun, inspiring and interesting. You should be excited by the idea you have!

▪ Surprise yourself: Often we think about what we can’t do… Think about what you can do! It’s easy to feel small in the face of such a huge crisis, but every little action counts.

▪ Encourage others: A great idea will naturally attract others who can help bring the idea to life. Use your influence and networks to bring others on board.

Plastic pollution is one of the biggest environmental challenges of our time, with statistics showing that there will be more plastic in the oceans than fish by 2050. To change the future, we all need to play our part. Whether it is a bottled soft drink, a bag from the supermarket or a spoon in a coffee shop, single-use plastic has become embedded in our daily lives. The low cost, convenience and lightness of these products have revolutionized the packaging of goods. However, the catastrophic environmental cost of this convenience is now becoming increasingly clear.

Introduction

Let’s get started

World Environment Day is gaining momentum and we want to inspire young people to be at the heart of our celebrations. To help you on your way, we’ve outlined some of the many ways the education community can get involved.

1 Discuss the impact of plastic waste

Get your students thinking about what they can do to generate less plastic waste, both individually and collectively. Lesson plans will be available to download from mid-April on the World Environment Day website. Visit a recycling facility to see where plastic waste ends up. Find an organization that is working to address plastic pollution and invite them to give a talk at your school or university.

2 Take part in the worldwide #BeatPlasticPollution game of tag on social media

In the build-up to 5 June, we want to get people around the world sharing with their friends, families and colleagues what they are doing to change their single-use plastic habits.

● Join the global #BeatPlasticPollution game of tag: Invite students and staff to take a selfie with their canvas shopping bag, metal straw or any other reusable product and tag five friends, telling them to do the same. The person tagged should post a photo with their reusable item within 24 hours.

● Challenge other institutions to join you in cleaning the planet: Announce that your school or university is cleaning up plastic litter in a park or public space for World Environment Day. Tag other schools/universities, challenging them to do the same.

● Encourage another institution to make a plastic-reduction pledge: Make a commitment to reduce your school or university’s use of disposable plastic and tag another school/university, challenging them to do the same.

● Spread the game of tag: Post a photo of your students or staff bringing in their reusable food containers every day and tag other colleagues, challenging them to do the same.

When you post about World Environment Day on social media, make sure to use the #WorldEnvironmentDay and #BeatPlasticPollution hashtags and mention @unenvironment.  

For 5 June, World Environment Day: clean up the world

Choose an area to clean up: For World Environment Day, we are inviting all our education partners to mobilize their networks to participate in a clean-up and find out where the waste is coming from.

This could be along a river, on a beach or an area near your school or university that is littered with plastic. While clean-ups may only address the plastic issue at the end of its life cycle, they are a great way for students to see the extent of plastic waste first-hand and rethink their behaviour.

Tips to get you started

▪ Identify your area and register it: With colleagues and students, see if there is an area that you want to clean up. You could contact your local environment authorities to identify nearby spaces or locations that are in greatest need of support. Once you know where you will be doing the clean-up, register your area on the World Environment Day website. You may find that others have activities under way in your area – suggest teaming up with them!

▪ Get the school or university on board: Set a date to start the clean-up – it could be during a lunch hour over the course of a week or a morning the weekend before 5 June. Invite your staff, pupils, parents and suppliers to get involved in the clean-up. The more the merrier!

▪ Download the app: This year, we are working with Litterati to track the plastic waste that gets collected. Download the app at

www.litterati.org and register what you collect so that it is included in the global total.

▪ Get the kit you need: Whether this is gloves, bags, neon vests or litter pickers, get the materials you need to go and collect plastic waste. Check whether a business or organization will cover the cost for materials or ask people to chip in on the day. You may also need drinks and refreshments to keep your team going.

▪ Sort the waste: Organize the waste you collect by type and have a plan for how it can be recycled.

▪ Invite the media, politicians, and businesses and organizations: Get the local media involved to cover your clean-up and identify an inspiring spokesperson who can explain what you are hoping to achieve. Why not also ask politicians and local bottling companies to come along so they can get involved and understand what more needs to be done?

▪ Take a photo and share it with us on social media: Let us know how you got on – share a photo of your collection efforts, telling us what type of waste you collected and how much it weighed. When you post about World Environment Day on social media, make sure to use the #WorldEnvironmentDay and #BeatPlasticPollution hashtags and mention

@unenvironment.

▪ Leave a legacy: Once you have finished the clean-up, why not leave a sign that lets people know the area was declared plastic-waste free for World Environment Day? This way, we can hopefully keep it this way and turn the tide on plastic!

What to do next?

To help spread the word about World Environment Day, we encourage you to download the brand toolkit and use the available social media materials on the World Environment Day website. Here you will be able to:

1 Register your activity: If you register, we can then promote your work on all our digital platforms.

2 Download materials: These include the brand toolkit with all the logos, social media assets and more.

3 Find out more on the issue of marine plastic litter at the Clean Seas website: To address the crisis facing our oceans, UN Environment launched the #CleanSeas campaign, which has already seen over 40 governments commit to act on this issue and 70,000 individual actions.

Contacts:

Register your event on worldenvironmentday@un.org or get in touch with specific colleagues running the regional plans for the day:

UN Environnent HQJoyce Sangjoyce.sang@un.org

AfricaMohamed Atanimohamed.atani@un.org

Latin AmericaMaria Amparo Lassomaria.lasso@pnuma.org

North AmericaLaura Fullerlaura.fuller@un.org

EuropeAlejandro Lagunaalejandro.laguna@un.org

West AsiaMelanie Hutchinsonmelanie.hutchinson@un.org

Asia PacificIsabelle Louisisabelle.louis@un.org

www.unenvironment.orgwww.worldenvironmentday.global#worldenvironmentday#beatplasticpollution@unenvironment