You are here: What we do Education Elementary Book: Back to the Plastic Age
Now available in Dutch, soon to be translated into English.
This hopeful children’s book takes you to the distant future, where the plastic problem has long been a thing of the past. An archaeologist tells about the time we live in now: the Plastic Age, when people threw away plastic cutlery after a party, animals got into trouble because of plastic waste and manufacturers were allowed to put microplastics in toothpaste.
In Back to the Plastic Age, children go on an expedition to the Plastic Age with Professor P.V.C. Pipe, a Plastic Age expert from 2132. He tells young kids everything about the plastic problem: which plastic types existed, where in the world people suffered from plastic pollution, and which young heroes tackled the plastic problem.
In each continent, we have selected three young heroes who took action to tackle the plastic problem. These young heroes demonstrated, went on strikes, started petitions, developed robots, organised cleanups and much more.
See below for a preview of the book in English.
Age: 8 +
Dimensions: 20 x 28 cm
Edition: bound, full colour
Number of pages: 128 pages
Back to the Plastic Age was first published in Dutch in October 2022. It is our goal to have this book translated into as many languages as possible and for it to be distributed worldwide among those who follow and support the work of the Plastic Soup Foundation.
Please let us know if you are interested in a translation of the book by contacting us at: youngheroes@plasticsoupfoundation.org. We would be glad to arrange a meeting with you.
Translation grants
The Dutch Foundation for Literature has indicated that they will support foreign-language publications of Back to the Plastic Age with their translation grants and production subsidies for illustrated children’s literature.
Geert-Jan Roebers is a biologist and writer. He worked at WWF as editor-in-chief of the youth magazine TamTam. After this, he became editor-in-chief of Nieuws uit de Natuur (school TV). He wrote the Super Animals series for Albert Heijn, a series of animal books for the KNNV publishing house, non-fiction children’s books at Gottmer and activity books for Roots and Fontaine.
Margot Westermann is an illustrator and designer. She has unique skills in conveying difficult subjects to young readers through images. She illustrated the bestseller The Sweaty Feet Man (Lemniscaat, 2017), of which more than 30,000 copies have been sold.
Michiel Spijkers studied photography at the Royal Academy of Art, The Hague. His work was awarded at the European Design Awards in 2016. Michiel works for major brands such as Ikea, Adidas, Shimano, De Bijenkorf and more.
Wendela van Asbeck education manager
Wendela is responsible for all our educational programmes and activities. She acted as project manager of the children’s book and ensured that the book was made and that the content was correct.
Harmen Spek innovation and solutions
Harmen focuses on solutions & innovations for all PSF projects and campaigns. He contributed to the content of this hopeful children’s book. Among other things, the complex subject matter has been made comprehensible by Harmen.
Maria Westerbos director and founder
Maria strategically paves the way for Plastic Soup Foundation and does so with humour. She founded the organisation in 2011 because she wants to make the world a better place for the next generation. The children’s book was Maria’s idea.
