Plastic Fantastic & Where We Hope It Goes

Think back to when you were in school. Was there a moment that changed how you saw the world? We're trying to create that — around plastic.

Working as part of a team to build something is what I love to do. There is something special about moving from several individual worlds into — for a specific time and purpose — one shared world, where we realize a vision together. Plastic Fantastic is one of those projects. Here is what it is and how it came to be.

 At Delve, I am a grateful and proud recipient of two separate CleanBC Plastic Action Fund grants. Those grants made it possible to build out Delve's small-scale recycling studio and offer the myriad services and explorations we now can. As it turns out, the Sustainability Team at the University of Northern BC (UNBC) was also a recipient of the same fund — and alongside their core partner, the Northern BC Maker Collective, were hoping to follow a similar path: acquire small-scale recycling equipment and locally tackle problem plastic.

To understand the Plastic Fantastic workshop series we've created, it helps to first know who's at the table…

UNBC is highly committed to sustainability - across campus operations, research, and education, and anchors that commitment around the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. They have a creative Sustainability Team that gets students, faculty, staff, and community engaged in their many events and initiatives. The campus has a rigorous recycling program, offers a sustainability grant program to support good green ideas. When you visit the campus, it’s palpable and obvious. It was through the Sustainability Team's CleanBC Plastic Action Fund grant that small-scale recycling equipment is coming online in Prince George. 

The Northern BC Maker Collective is a group of dedicated makers, scientists, fabricators, and creative folk who are working to develop a shared community resource in Prince George. They're the organization behind the Maker Station — a community makerspace in Prince George, and the new home of UNBC's microrecycling equipment. With access to a wide variety of tools, technical equipment, and expertise, it's a big win for the community — and having recycling equipment available in the north is huge for small-scale recycling in BC.

My introduction to the UNBC Sustainability Team, and the Northern BC Maker Collective came through Alacrity Canada. In the year and a half since the first connections, we’ve been sharing knowledge, dreaming about possibilities, and cheering each other on. 

In mid-2025, Delve officially partnered with the Northern BC Maker Collective to pilot a small-scale recycling workshop series for students in the north. We received $7,500 through the IREN Community Grant Program - funding that allowed us to start developing workshop materials together and reaching out to educators. 

To make sure the workshops were as relevant and effective as possible, we collaborated with Hart Banack, a UNBC professor and part of the Climate Education in Teacher Education (CETE) project. Working with Hart helped us build a workshop framework grounded in how good climate education works: hands-on, age-appropriate, and aligned to BC’s Applied Design, Skills, and Technologies (ADST) curriculum. I learned one of my favorite new words for describing experiences from Hart, “sticky”. He encouraged us to think back to our own experiences as students, what were those “sticky” experiences that we still revisit as adults because of their fun, engaging, absorbing delivery? We also have Hart to thank for the incredible project name. 

Delve brings recycling expertise, equipment, and program building experience. The Northern BC Maker Collective brings maker know-how, community connections, and more equipment. UNBC and CETE bring rigour and a serious commitment to how we teach the next generation. What a team!

What We’ve Created

Here is what Plastic Fantastic looks like: two 2.5-3 hour hands-on recycling education workshops designed for students in Grades 3-4 and Grades 9-10, with content age appropriate to each group. It is built around three core goals: 

> Raising awareness about plastic and local waste systems;

> Introducing the design process; and,

> Actually making something from recycled plastic. 

In BC, there are ADST objectives in the curriculum for every grade — this type of lesson plan isn't necessarily an add-on, it’s part of the conversation and learning already happening in classrooms.

Where We Hope it Goes

We are preparing to bring Plastic Fantastic into Prince George classrooms in April and May 2026. After delivering our two IREN funded pilot sessions, we’ll be opening Plastic Fantastic up to broader bookings. For schools and organizations in Prince George, workshops will be available through the Maker Station. For those further afield, Delve has a mobile recycling studio that can travel, bringing the workshop experience to schools and communities across BC.  

But the bigger hope is this: that Plastic Fantastic changes how people relate to plastic waste. Not just sorting it into a bin - black or blue - but actually thinking about it. Where it came from. The remarkable journey it took to get from somewhere underground into your hand. And what’s possible when you have a little creativity and access to the right equipment. 

We also see Plastic Fantastic as a way to introduce people to something many BC residents don’t know exists - Extended Producer Responsibility, BC’s progressive recycling policy that puts the responsibility for end-of-life plastic back on producers. Understanding that policy changes how people see the system - and their place in it. 

Like everything that I do at Delve - the goal is to replace overwhelm  with possibility. To light up that glint of playfulness in people’s eyes when they start thinking about what the plastic waste in their hand could become - it’s a material with a future. In three years, my hope is that Plastic Fantastic is a trusted, go-to resource for circular economy education in BC classrooms - proof that small-scale, community rooted programming can move the needle. 

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A huge thank you to our partners — the Northern BC Maker Collective, the University of Northern BC, the UNBC Sustainability Team, Hart Banack and the CETE project, Alacrity Canada, and IREN for making this possible.

As usual, you can connect with me here on LinkedIn, via email at emma@delverecycled.ca, check out the Delve online store and site at delverecycled.ca, or follow along on social media @delverecycled.

Learn more about the Plastic Fantastic project partners, and those that helped make it possible:

• Northern BC Maker Collective at their website: https://pgmakers.ca/ or visit their facebook page, here.

• Check out the UNBC Sustainability initiatives at their comprehensive webpage that's up to date with current events, here.

• Learn about the Climate Education in Teacher Education (CETE) Project - a UNBC research iniative studying how to better equip northern BC teachers to engage with the climate emergency in their classrooms, here.

• Learn more about the Plastic Fantastic Workshop Sponsor, IREN, and their Prince George and Mackenzie Community Grant Program, here.