Plastic Tide Turners
Challenge

Ensuring a healthy planet is critical to our well-being and the future of all life on Earth. Unfortunately, one of the biggest threats to our planet's health is plastic pollution. While plastic has made our lives easier, disposing of it and its impact on the environment pose significant challenges.

Plastic pollution has reached alarming levels, especially in oceans, where marine life suffers from getting tangled in plastic or mistaking it for food. This disrupts ecosystems and affects human health as microplastics enter the food chain and end up on our plates.

Addressing plastic pollution requires action beyond cleaning beaches and oceans. The solution begins on land, where most plastic waste originates. Adopting sustainable practices, such as reducing single-use plastics, promoting recycling, and investing in innovative alternatives, are crucial steps in tackling this problem.

The Plastic Tide Turners challenge provides young people with a unique opportunity to tackle issues arising from plastics. This challenge allows them to build an understanding about the environmental impacts of misusing plastics, identify local issues, investigate the root causes, and innovate for solutions towards a cleaner planet.

This challenge offers engaging activities at different levels, designed to inform young people about threats facing our planet, while developing leadership skills and cultivating a true commitment to protecting our environment. 

As a final step in the challenge, a community service project must be implemented by the young people applying for the badge. Creating a service project is main goal of the challenge, where young people can put the knowledge and skills they gained into practice, leaving a positive imprint on the community.

By working towards a healthier planet, young people will not only ensure their own well-being in the future but also leave a lasting legacy of environmental stewardship for generations to come.

The learning objectives of each challenge are designed to not only educate and inspire but also empower individuals. They are structured to guide participants through a personalized journey, tailored to their age, ensuring that their knowledge evolves from one activity or project to the next. This approach builds competencies for sustainable development, and empowers young people to lead positive change.

The Plastic Tide Turners challenge places young people on the learning path of “Healthy Planet” supporting them to progress through three main milestones: 

• Be Aware of the world around them and key environmental issues.
• Cooperate with others to find solutions to protect ecosystems, biodiversity and outdoor spaces.
• Act to implement green practices to save the planet.

Young people may combine the Plastic Tide Turners challenge with other challenges that are environment-focused, to complement their journey through the Earth Tribe.

For a young person to earn their Plastic Tide Turners badge, they must follow the below process with the support of their adult Leader.

To begin each challenge, the youth will first undergo a self-assessment to evaluate their current level of knowledge and awareness regarding the learning paths associated with the challenge.

Upon completion of all the activities and the community project of a challenge, the young person will become a member of the Earth Tribe and recognised as a global citizen for the environment. They will receive the Earth Tribe pin and challenge badge.

Both young people and adults can explore various combinations, suited for each individual's interests, drawing from other existing environmental initiatives within the NSO.

Please note that the activities mentioned are suggestions and not requirements. You and your Adult Leaders have the flexibility to choose alternative activities that align with the learning objectives. The key is to select activities that effectively serve the purpose of achieving those objectives.

The Tide Turners Plastic Challenge Visuals provide information and resources to help National Scout Associations/Organizations (NSAs/NSOs) and partners develop promotional materials when adopting the Earth Tribe initiative into their national Youth Programme. NSAs/NSOs that adopt the Tide Turners Plastic Challenge, can access all of the artwork at:  earthtribe.scout.org.

WOSM encourages and supports the adoption and use of its graphics by its member organizations and partners. We have introduced the unified concept of what is considered commercial or non-commercial use of any WOSM brand or logo on any item, based on the intent “to offer it for sale” or not, in order to simplify authorised use of our designs by our member organizations. These conditions are described in more detail on page 4 of the Earth Tribe Identity Guide. This document, and the information on the website, do not provide, or imply any right, for anyone to use these designs for commercial purposes, nor the right to modify the basic logo and badge in any way, other than for translation purposes.