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, EPIC Academy at: https://www.bcfieldtrips.ca/trip/explore-issues-about-ocean-plastics-and...
We highly recommend Teacher/students register (at no cost) and review Lesson 1 of EPIC Academy content prior to attending this tour, to create increased understanding and awareness of what will be observed and discussed during the tour. PLEASE SEE "ADDITIONAL NOTES" BELOW for important notes!
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 at 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 BC and Atlantic Canada, used marine/fishing gear, ghost gear, materials collected by other non-profit cleanup organizations and marine industrial businesses.
The tour offers an opportunity to see the process used to convert recovered marine plastic back into high-grade 100% post-consumer processed plastic pellets for use in the manufacturing of durable products as part of the circular economy. Ultimately, the goal of the field trip is to foster understanding of the plastic pollution crisis and circular economy principles: what is considered waste, how much of what consumers use daily is actually recyclable/recoverable, and to provide students with hands-on interaction with marine debris. Students develop awareness of their own plastic consumption habits, and ways they can take direct action to become part of the solution. Students will see the transformation of ocean plastic waste into new resources that have economic value.
Knowledge gained in this field trip can be enhanced when paired with EPIC Academy, Ocean Legacy's 10 lessons of no-cost/fully-funded online ocean plastics education. This LMS platform offers access to both individual online learners and also has downloadable materials for classroom educators. Includes classroom PowerPoint presentations, fully developed lesson plans, reflective activities and quizzes/answers sheets.
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 to 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.
PLEASE SEE "ADDITIONAL NOTES" BELOW for important notes!
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.
