Plastic Replacement World...

Several weekends ago,  TEFL Peace Corps volunteers assisted at a teacher workshop on project-based learning.  On the second day of the workshop, each group developed a project-based lesson plan.  When each group finished their lesson plan, we hung them in the hallway and participants walked around to look at each other's work.  One of the projects developed in one of the groups was entitled "Plastic Free World."  This lesson was designed for 9th graders, and the driving question was, "How can we go plastic-free?"    I was looking at the project when the teacher next to me said "That's just not possible".  I talked with him a bit and we discussed some ways to eliminate single-use plastics.  Our discussion made me think, however; that the better driving question might be "How do we keep single-use plastic from clogging our landfills, rivers, lakes, oceans, and green spaces?".

Last Tuesday, we headed to Prishtina to stay at the Best Western near the airport as we had an early flight to Istanbul.  As I was getting ready for bed, I noticed that there were two little boxes at the sink in the bathroom.  They each contained a toothbrush.  I decided to use one of the toothbrushes, rather than digging through my backpack to find the one I had packed.  When I pulled the toothbrush out of the box, I noticed that the plastic was a little different.  It was cream-colored, with tan specks, and it was not shiny like regular plastic.  

My wheat straw toothbrush

I grabbed the box to see if it said what it was made of and it did!  It was made of wheat straw.  I have since done a little research and I found that there are companies making plastic-like products from wheat straw and other bio-materials such as bamboo fiber, rice husks, sugar cane, corn starch, and even avocado seeds.  The advantage of wheat straw is that it is a waste product from wheat and flour production.  It is often burned, which also adds to air pollution.

Wheat straw plastics are heat resistant, dishwasher safe, and reusable.  They do not break down without the aid of an acid found in soil.  They are therefore compostable in soil and typically break down in 9 months to a year.  You can compost them in home compost or commercial compost bins.  Wheat straw plastics can be remade and remolded as well.

I also just read about a company making plates and bowls out of palm or banana leaves.  The leaves are collected after they fall from the trees and are then pressed together to form disposable, compostable plates.  My food co-op back in Middleton has been using compostable plastic produce bags for years.  These bags are typically made from cornstarch and break down quickly in landfills or compost bins.

A part of project-based lesson planning is the continued refinement of the driving questions to spark the interest of our students.  So just imagine the solutions that 9th graders (lucky enough to be in a school where project-based learning is used) might come up with if given the driving question "How can we eliminate the use of petroleum-based plastics?".  The possibilities are endless.