Ocean Legacy Foundation
Our Trips
Brief description of program:
This unique field trip offers students an on-site tour of the first and only facility in North America dedicated to recovery and recycling of ocean plastic with direct traceability to ocean recovery expeditions. It includes hands-on interactive sorting of ocean plastics.
Can’t get to our facility? Be sure to check out our FREE online program, https://www.bcfieldtrips.ca/trip/explore-issues-about-ocean-plastics-and...
Full Trip Details:
Ocean Legacy Foundation is a non-profit organization dedicated to ending the ocean plastic pollution crisis, and strengthening the plastic circular economy through our recycling program. Our work is built on a four-pillar program called EPIC, which stands for Education, Policy, Infrastructure, and Cleanup.
Education and Policy are upstream efforts that prevent plastics and other waste from reaching our oceans and waterways. Infrastructure and Cleanup are downstream initiatives that seek to remove plastics from our oceans and shorelines, and process them for reintroduction into the plastic circular economy.
The field trip will occur primarily outdoors at our Plastic Pollution Emergency Response recycling facility located in Steveston Harbour in Richmond. Ours is the first and only facility that collects marine plastics from a wide variety of sources to recover what was considered waste and turns it back into reusable plastic. Sources include: our own cleanup expeditions on coastal waters and shorelines, the Ocean Legacy network of Ocean Plastic Depots across the province, used marine/fishing gear, materials collected by other non-profit cleanup organizations and marine industrial businesses.
The tour offers the opportunity to understand the process used to take recovered marine plastic and convert it back into high-grade 100% post-consumer processed plastic pellets for use in the manufacturing of new, value-added, durable products as part of the circular economy. Ultimately, the goal of the field trip is to foster understanding of what is considered waste and how much of what we use is, in fact, recyclable/recoverable. Students watch ocean plastic waste transform into materials that have economic value and that serve as valuable resources.
Fieldtrip structure:
- Walk the facility perimeter to see the equipment and portions of the recovery process
- Watch ocean plastics recycling in action
- Identify resin codes
- Sort items you see and use at home: a large bag of ocean-recovered plastic materials will be emptied to engage all students in an interactive sorting activity that demonstrates what types of commonly used plastics end up in the ocean. This prompts students consider their consumption habits and connects cause and effect of reduced consumption and proper disposal
- See benches and lumber made from ocean-recovered plastic
What to bring:
- Work gloves for sorting
- Closed-toe shoes are required for safety
- Snacks
- Water bottle (can be refilled with filtered water on-site if needed)
One single stall/private washroom is available on site.
FREE PARKING - is available on Chatham street; pay parking is also available in the lot directly in front of our facility.
About This Online Resource: EPIC Academy Ocean Plastics Curriculum
A fully funded, fully developed curriculum targeted at secondary students ages 14+ (with materials accessible for lower grades as well) that is a comprehensive and thorough examination of ocean plastic pollution, microplastics and ways to help mitigate these serious issues. Content is available either as an online offering that students can navigate on their own, or can be accessed through downloadable offerings and presented offline in class. We highly recommend use of downloadable supports for classroom use.
10 lessons (15 hours of study in total) available in English, French and Spanish, aligned with BC Curriculum. Content can be paused at any point and returned to at the instructor's convenience (auto-saves).
Educator Materials include: detailed lesson plans and classroom presentations, reflective and group activities, quizzes and answer sheets.
Digital badges are available for every lesson and printable certificates are provided on completion.
Lessons 1 to 5 are foundational knowledge specifically directed toward classroom educators. Lessons 6 to 10 are advanced, directed toward creating meaningful change by advocacy, enacting policy, building a recycling system or upgrading infrastructure and managing media.
Access requires the creation of a login that allows teachers (or individual users) to track progress through the lessons. This links to completed content for printable certificates.
There are 5 questions asked during the registration process: Are you a teacher or a student? What is your school/location if applicable? What country are you learning from? What language are you learning in? How did you hear about this resource?
STAY TUNED for upcoming listings of in-person tours at our Ocean Plastics Recycling Facility located in Steveston Harbour, Richmond.
