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This fall, s are headed back to the classroom for another year of lessons in all the classic subjects: math, English, history, biology. But there鈥檚 another subject that鈥檚 been sneaking into school curricula: plastics.

A from the nonprofit Plastic Pollution Coalition documents the many ways the plastics industry has been inserting its agenda into classrooms across the U.S. 鈥� including through lesson plans and worksheets, hands-on science experiments, and a program called 鈥淧lastiVan鈥� that travels from city to city teaching students about 鈥�.鈥�

Industry interests offer these resources to teachers for free or for cheap, according to the report. The materials tend to highlight the necessity of plastics while downplaying their significant downsides to human health and the environment.

鈥淲hen that information is provided to kids, it obfuscates the true impacts of plastic pollution,鈥� said Madison Dennis, senior policy and advocacy manager for Plastic Pollution Coalition and one of the report鈥檚 main authors. Besides harming marine life, plastics can , clog storm drains and , and . The Plastic Pollution Coalition is calling for stricter school policies against the use of industry-sponsored learning materials.

The report lays out four case studies of plastics industry 鈥減ropaganda鈥� for schoolkids. One involves the , or SPE, a trade group that recently became a division of the Plastics Industry Association. SPE鈥檚 include activities like a 鈥減lastic scavenger hunt,鈥� which aims for students to 鈥渦nderstand that plastics are ubiquitous and their importance to society and their personal life.鈥� A video titled 鈥淵our Bottle Means Jobs鈥� explains how plastics recycling supports local employment.

Another case study highlights the , an initiative of the Dow Chemical Company. One of the association鈥檚 lesson plans teaches elementary and middle school students how to compare the strength of various types of plastic bags that can be found in a grocery store. After a brief experiment, the lesson invites them to 鈥減retend [they] are an employee for Dow Chemical Company鈥� and are designing a plastic bag for a customer.

While many of the materials claim to support STEM learning objectives, they do so while promoting familiar industry talking points, emphasizing the affordability and safety of plastics. Some acknowledge plastic pollution as a serious problem, but they blame irresponsible consumer behaviors and, instead of recommending less plastic be produced, propose more recycling as the primary way to address it.

In reality, only of all plastics are recycled worldwide, and scientists have repeatedly warned that recycling will be unable to keep up with projected growth in plastic production. has shown that industry groups knew this decades ago, but promoted recycling anyway in order to defuse growing concern over plastic pollution.

Wendy Johnson, a science education specialist at the , said the industry鈥檚 lesson plans and worksheets don鈥檛 reflect good pedagogy. Materials claiming to be aligned with state-level STEM standards don鈥檛 say which standards they support, or how they鈥檙e aligned. Lesson plans instruct students to read teachers鈥� notes, or list industry-specific vocab terms like 鈥渟tretch blow molding鈥� or 鈥渢hermosetting.鈥�

鈥淏y using all of these technical terms, it鈥檚 tricking people into thinking 鈥� that they鈥檙e doing science,鈥� Johnson told Grist. What the materials really teach, she said, is 鈥渋deological perspectives about the economy,鈥� like the desirability of cheap consumer goods.

鈥淚t鈥檚 so clear that the purpose isn鈥檛 to make really clear, easy-to-use materials,鈥� Johnson added. 鈥淭he idea isn鈥檛 to teach,鈥� but to get industry talking points into classrooms. The report documents plastics propaganda finding its way into schools since at least the 2000s. Between 2009 and 2011, for example, a plastics trade group lobbied the California Department of Education to add a section on 鈥淭he Advantages of Shopping Bags鈥� to the state鈥檚 high school textbooks. The PlastiVan initiative has been ongoing since 2011, and SPE claims it鈥檚 reached over in total.

Plastic Pollution Coalition suggests that the problem is particularly significant in schools located near petrochemical facilities. In Beaver County, Pennsylvania, for example, Shell operates a 386-acre plastics production complex and has invested millions of dollars in the development of plastics-related curricula and recycling programs, both for grade schoolers and for community college students. It has also donated hundreds of backpacks filled with school supplies, and bought one school a basketball court 鈥� seemingly in exchange for .

Shell didn鈥檛 respond to Grist鈥檚 request for comment. Neither did SPE, the American Association of Chemistry Teachers, nor the school district in Beaver County.

The report hints at a broader problem with STEM education in U.S. public schools. Teachers often lack the time and money needed to design their own curricula, or to buy high-quality materials and lesson plans needed for in-class labs or science projects. When vested interests come along offering support 鈥� whether it鈥檚 the , the , the , or the 鈥� it can be hard to say no.

鈥淎s a teacher, I鈥檓 always looking for free stuff,鈥� said , a K-8 environmental educator in California who consulted on the Plastic Pollution Coalition report. Hicks said their education and background make them comfortable vetting materials for greenwashing 鈥斅燽ut that鈥檚 likely not the case with most teachers.

Dennis recommended that school boards adopt policies banning educational materials sponsored by the chemical, fossil fuel, and plastics industries. She also emphasized the need for better school funding more generally, so that teachers and districts aren鈥檛 so desperate for ready-made learning materials.

One way to achieve this would be to eliminate tax breaks for petrochemical processing and plastics production facilities, which .

Katie Allen, executive director of , a California-based environmental nonprofit that develops educational materials on plastic pollution, pushed back against the idea that schools should ban all industry-sponsored content.

鈥淥nce you start banning one thing, where does it end? What I want to do is give educators the benefit of the doubt and allow them to make their own decisions,鈥� she told Grist. She argued that teachers should be trusted to properly contextualize industry materials 鈥斅燼nd that they could even use them to teach critical-thinking skills.

That said, there are plenty of educational materials on plastics that are developed by non-industry sources. Algalita, for instance, offers free lesson plans on topics like plastic garbage patches in the oceans and biomagnification 鈥斅爐he phenomenon where plastics build up inside sea creatures as you move up the food chain. The Story of Stuff, another nonprofit, offers a broader focused on the costs and consequences of producing consumer goods 鈥斅爄ncluding those made from plastics.

Those learning materials still come from organizations with an agenda. But Hicks argued they鈥檙e more trustworthy, since nonprofits usually aren鈥檛 trying to sell something.

Another option is for teachers to simply design their own curricula. That鈥檚 what Jacqueline Omania, a recently retired elementary school teacher in Berkeley, California, . She turned her classroom into a zero-waste laboratory, and each year for 11 years, Omania and her students developed a set of zero-waste classroom agreements, vowing to minimize their plastics use 鈥� by swapping individual glue sticks for a communal tub of glue, for example 鈥� while also advocating for more systemic change, like by campaigning for a policy requiring Berkeley restaurants to .

鈥淭here are so many challenges in the world, but plastic is something tangible,鈥� Omania said. 鈥淚t鈥檚 right there in front of them, and they can see the difference that they鈥檙e actually making through their actions.鈥�

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