Litter We Know

Provided by: Learning for a Sustainable Future|Published on: July 10, 2026

Activity - Outdoors

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Synopsis

This outdoor activity has students clean up litter in different areas of the schoolyard to quantify and categorize litter present.
Students then discuss how litter can harm wildlife, brainstorm ways to reduce schoolyard litter, and can extend the work by researching diversion rates, redesigning packaging, or writing to manufacturers.

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Subjects: Science, Civics, Mathematics

Authors: Learning for a Sustainable Future

Region: Global

Languages: English

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Teaching Materials

Classroom Implementation:

Review safety protocols and instructions with students before going outside.
If your school yard is not littered, consider going to your nearest public park instead (check it first for dangerous items, such as needles and glass).
The wildlife-impact discussion is a good hook for talking about impacts on whole ecosystems and food webs due to human activity.

Differentiation:

Adjust the graphing complexity to your grade level, from simple picture or bar graphs for younger students to pie graphs and percentages for older ones.
For older students, use knowledge of areas and ratios to calculate how much litter they would expect to see in their town if it was littered at the same rate as the school yard.

Extensions:

For older students, use this activity to launch and model a one-week survey where students count and categorize everything they throw away.
The follow-up options turn the activity into an extended project on school waste reduction, consumer packaging, and civic action, connecting data to real-world citizenship.

Scientist Notes

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About the Partner Provider

Learning for a Sustainable Future

Learning for a Sustainable Future is a Canadian charity founded in 1991 to integrate sustainability education into Canada’s K-12 school system. Learning for a Sustainable Future focuses on 4 priority areas including: Advancing Education Policy through research and knowledge mobilization; Supporting Educators through delivery of teacher workshops and provision of classroom resources; Youth Engagement through climate action youth leadership forums and climate action project funding; and Celebrating Bright Spots of Innovation through educator and youth awards and the Sustainable Future Schools whole school initiative.

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All resources can be used for your educational purposes with proper attribution to the content provider.

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Litter We Know

Synopsis

Teaching Materials

About the Partner Provider

Related Teaching Resources