Plastic Calculator
Provided by: EARTHDAY.ORG|Published on: May 1, 2024|Last updated: September 26, 2026
Grades: 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12
Type: Articles/Websites
Subjects: Social Studies, Earth and Space Sciences
Authors: EARTHDAY.ORG
Location: Earth
This resource has been reviewed by SubjectToClimate's climate scientists and verified for scientific accuracy and up-to-date information. Learn about our review process →
This resource has been reviewed by SubjectToClimate's climate scientists and verified for scientific accuracy and up-to-date information. Learn about our review process →
Synopsis
- This interactive calculator allows students to examine their yearly plastic consumption and consider how they can decrease it.
- Students will input their consumption of various plastic items and the amount of personal reduction they could achieve annually.
Teaching Materials
Positives
- Using the calculator, students can think about pollution concretely.
- The fields for students to fill out are enough to understand their impact but not enough to overwhelm students.
Additional Prerequisites
- This calculator does list "cigarette butts" and "feminine products" as plastic items worth measuring.
- It may help students to measure their usage of these products weeks before using this calculator.
Differentiation
- This interactive calculator can fit within a larger unit on different types of pollution and their environmental impacts.
- Teachers can help students write SMART goals to reduce their plastic usage, record their monthly usage, and then write an essay detailing their results.
- Students can research policies or movements that would regulate plastic manufacturing effectively and eco-friendly.
- To help students understand the importance of reducing plastic usage, they can research the impacts of plastic pollution on marine ecosystems.
With this resource, users can calculate their plastic use of certain items for a year. Users can then estimate how much plastic waste they can reduce by using these items less often. While users cannot add their items to the calculator, the site describes how to do the calculations if users want to look at their consumption of other items. The site briefly discusses plastic pollution and provides links to more information. This resource is recommended for teaching.
Teaching Tips
Standards
Resource Type and Format
Scientist Reviewed
This resource has been reviewed by SubjectToClimate's climate scientists and verified for scientific accuracy and up-to-date information. Our review process ensures that every resource in our library reflects the current state of climate science.
Learn about our review process →
