This activity shows how to make step by step your own snack box from plastic.

Activity steps

1. Prepare your area by clearing your desk and laying newspaper down, and laying out all of the materials. Don't forget to wash out the bottle before use.
2. Take the pen and draw a horizontal line around the bottle, approximately 10cm from the bottom. Then draw out a semi-circle above this line on each side and the front of the milk carton. These will be the flaps on your box.
3. On the back, i.e. opposite the handle, measure up a further 10cm and draw a semi-circle above this line. In the picture above, you can see how the back section will fold over to be your lid.
4. Squeeze the milk carton together at the top, and cut into it. Then cut around the edges of each semi-circle.
5. Fold the flaps and the lid along the ridge in the milk bottle.
6. Stick a velcro pad to the front of the bottle, just below the folded semi-circle.
7. Attach the velcro pads together, removing the backing from the second pad and close the lid. This will stick the second pad in the right place.
8. Check and make sure your pads are on securely.
9. Put in your snacks!

• 1 litre / 2 pint plastic milk bottle
• Self-sticking velcro pads
• Stickers (for decorating)

Time to consider the advantages and disadvantages of plastic as a material and evaluate your product:

1. Who would want to use it?
2. Why is plastic good for this?
3. What is good about your product?
4. What could you to do make your product better?
5. Why is it important to reuse plastic?

Marine plastics context

Almost 300 million metric tons of plastics are produced worldwide annually. This is equivalent to the entire biomass of all adults in the world.

From all the discarded plastic, around 8 million metric tonnes end up in our oceans, making plastic the greatest component of marine litter. Wind and light help degrade this plastic debris over time, transforming it into microplastics. These fragments smaller than 5mm are everywhere in the global ocean. Plastic debris affect wildlife as it causes entanglement, ingestion and habitat alteration. Fish, crustaceans and other animals ingest microplastics, which reduces their energy intake and body mass, while having adverse health outcomes. This has also major implications for humans, from healthcare to economic activity.

So, in the long term we need to change how we relate to plastic through the 6 R’s: reduce, remove, re-design, re-use, recycle and recovery of energy.

This activity is just one idea of how you can contribute to re-using plastic and reducing the impact it has on the environment.