Investigate Biodegradability
Make a biodegradability garden! Bury a range of different objects in an empty garden space and see what biodegrades. Before doing this activity, predict which items will biodegrade. Guess how long it will take each item to completely biodegrade.
Try comparing degradable, biodegradable and compostable ‘plastic’ bags with a standard plastic bag. It’s a really good way to begin to understand the concept of ‘degradable’ vs ‘biodegradable’.
It’s a good idea to mark where things are buried with iceblock sticks. Check on the items after a couple of weeks, and then again after a couple of months. It’s fascinating to see what happens to the different objects.
Ideas of items to bury:
-Fabric (natural and synthetic fabrics)
-Wood (a pencil is interesting to watch break down)
-Glass
-Metal
-Plastic (wrappers, containers, cornstarch ‘plastic’, degradable plastic bag)
-Toothbrush (plastic and bamboo)
-Food items (banana skin, an orange, an apple core)
-A fruit sticker (this leads to interesting conversations too)
-A rubber
-A newspaper
-Cardboard
-A teabag (plastic vs natural fibre)
-Glitter (this brings up a lot of discussion, as it does not biodegrade and often ends up washed down our sinks, can you think of alternatives to use instead of glitter?)
