The challenge
I'm Stephen Bartlett and welcome to Planet Create. Where your ideas and creativity help to solve global issues, and today I’m pitching to you about responsible consumption and production. Now we all want to live-in a world where our oceans are kept cleanout countryside stays green, but because for wanting more and more things were producing the highest amounts of rubbish ever. We've all been tempted know I have to have things that we don't actually need, that extra pair of trainers, more games another sweatshirt and then we throw out the old ones.
But we're running out of space on our planet for all of that. Once something stops being trendy or fashionable clothes are dumped in huge quantities. In fact, every secondi truckload of them are throw-in landfill or incinerated. Can you imagine that's a huge number of clothes going to waste. And where? This is the question asked myself. Where are we going to put it all?
Because of the materials we use to make our clothes when we throw them away, or we burn them, they release greenhouse gases that contribute to global warming. So the problemist we use too much stuff. Using materials that are bad for our environment and we create too much wastebin the process. So what is the solution? We all have a role to play to help the UN to ensure sustainable consumption. The stuff we use, and production which is this stuff we make, everywhere by 2030 and luckily, our small steps can go a long way. There are lots of ways we can help by reducing how much we use, reusing what we already have and recycling the things we don't need any more.
So I want to set out challenge for you. You're going to design a backpack. That is environmentally friendly but still functional to help crack down on material waste. You need to think about what material you will use, and how the material choice will support sustainability for our environment. Could you recycle some material from an old cushion, a pair of jeans and maybe turn them into a backpack? Could you research and investigate the most sustainable fabric options to make your bag in?
Remember to think about reduce, reuse and recycle the possibilities are quite literally endless and you get to decide. So get your designer flair engaged and get those creative juices flowing. I can't wait to see your design and maybe, maybe I'll end up wearing one myself.
Backpacks are one of the hardest things to recycle because they are usually made from a combination of different materials.
In this film, Dragons’ Den entrepreneur Steven Bartlett sets pupils the challenge of upcycling a backpack to get them thinking about how they can breathe new life into existing belongings, rather than throwing them away. This challenges ties in with the UN Sustainable Development Goal number 12: Responsible Consumption and Production.
Teacher notes
Supports learning about: industry, local and global trade, natural resources, materials and their properties.
Why not enable your pupils to take their learning further and come up with some practical solutions?
Classroom ideas
If you wish you can adapt ideas to be a quick activity, an entire lesson or develop into a longer topic.
Overconsumption - does it matter?
Ask your class to find out what this term means and identify times we have bought stuff we didn’t really need. According to calculations humanity now needs about 1.7 planets to maintain its rate of consumption. This is unequal too with the global north generally using far more resources than in the global south. Ask them to find out about Earth Overshoot day and discuss as a class whether this rate of consumption is fair and sustainable.
Follow the Stuff
Use these as discussion and research topics within your class.
- What happens to all the bags and other fashion items that are thrown away?
- Where do they go to?
- What about all the clothes that children grow out of?_
- How much is recycled and how much goes to landfill?
- Get your class to do a straw poll or spend longer on a questionnaire to go home and discuss what you find out.
Reduce, Reuse, Recycle, Repair
Ask pupils to think about when they are designing and creating their bag. How they can source materials that are sustainably produced, and which can be easily recycled, repaired or reused?Ask pupils to bring in an old bag from home if they have one and discuss how it might be repaired or recycled?
These are just a few examples.
- What are you doing in your curriculum and with which primary age group?
- What ideas have you and your class got to meet this challenge?
Curriculum links
England
Design and Technology; Geography and Science.
Northern Ireland
Personal Development and Mutual Understanding, The World Around Us.
Scotland
Technologies: Food and Textiles, Sciences: Materials, Social Studies: People Place and Environment.
Wales
Health and Wellbeing, Science and Technology, and Humanities.
Where next?
Food waste challenge with Gordon Ramsay
Celebrity Chef Gordon Ramsay sets pupils the challenge of making a meal from leftovers to help reduce food waste.
Animal hotel challenge with Chris Packham
Wildlife TV presenter and conservationist Chris Packham sets pupils a challenge to build a bug hotel, bee house or hedgehog home.
Health and wellbeing technology challenge with Alex Scott
Former footballer and TV Presenter Alex Scott sets primary pupils the challenge of inventing a piece of equipment or technology to improve health.
