Every year 8 million metric tons of plastic ends up in our oceans due to land-based activities. This waste conundrum is partially due to a lack of environmental awareness. So how do you change this? One word: Education.
Captain Fanplastic is an environmental literacy programme that uses graphic storytelling, creativity and gamification to educate primary school kids about the impact of land based pollution on the marine environment and the value of plastic should it be recycled. The learning objective is to create a mindset that plastic waste is #NoTrashButTreasure. The programme consists of five parts: Storytelling (reading the book: The Legend of Captain Fanplastic), Learning (teaching everything about plastic), Creating (making their own repurposed pirate gear), Cleaning (treasure hunting on beaches with treasure maps) and Recycling (installing treasure bins at schools).
Captain Fanplastic is built around SDG 14 and aims to reduce marine waste. We do this directly by removing waste from beaches and rivers, preventing it from ending up in the ocean. Indirectly we create behaviour change by educating young children about the impact and value of plastic waste improving their environmental literacy and decreasing the amount of plastic they use over their lifetime. Furthermore, after the kick-off, we install treasure bins to increase separation and recycling at the school and the children can access extra curricular activities through our e-learning platform to keep improving their environmental literacy.
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