Check your snack

Get creative with a camera and document waste packaging with younger pupils. 

Pupils will

• become aware of some of the effects of consumption decisions.
• think about alternatives to plastic.
• understand that plastic is difficult to avoid completely, but there are many ways to handle it more responsibly.
• set goals to produce less plastic waste and dispose of it appropriately.

1-2 hours

Camera (or mobile phone), paper (A4 and A1 for collage)

Collect school snack packaging from pupils or the school snack bar/canteen. You are then ready to start this photo documentation activity for pre-school and primary school children.

1. Photo documentation of snacks brought from home.

• Each pupil artfully places their snack on an A4 sheet of paper.
• Take photos of the pupils’ snacks.
• Create an (anonymised) collage of the photos.

2. Find plastic waste in the photos.

• The group discusses why some snacks are packaged in plastic.
• Why is small packaging, particularly for schoolchildren, used for items like sausages, cheese, sweets, and bread rolls?
• Are there unpackaged alternatives?

3. Consolidation of what has been learnt.

Discussion: What is the problem with plastic waste? How can we reduce our plastic snack waste at school?

Plan: Let’s reduce snack-related plastic waste in our class!

Evaluation: Repeat the "check your box" activity. 

• Could we reduce our plastic waste?
• What was easy?
• What was difficult?

4. Present the collage to parents.

Show the collage and the results of the project to parents (online or at a parents' evening). As a result, parents may become active in finding packaging alternatives or consciously avoiding packaging.

Additional activities:

• Prepare a zero-waste school breakfast.
• Collect your class’s plastic waste for a week—what could be avoided?
• Plastic packaging experiment – see resource
• Store check: Go shopping for school snacks—what is packaged, and what can be bought unpackaged?
• Plastic-free snacks challenge: Try a week (or a month) without plastic packaging.

Nature: Environmental protection and sustainability, consumer education

Language: Listening with understanding, speaking to others, holding conversations, developing inner images

Maths: Concepts of size, measuring activities, presenting data in a structured way

Art: Designing photographs, creating collage, presenting