Humanity today faces a triple crisis related to the three main problems of climate change, pollution and biodiversity loss. In recent years, it has been pointed out that the impacts of plastic pollution and climate change are closely linked. Formal education is crucial in raising awareness and promoting action on various environmental issues. It is essential to equip students with knowledge and inform them about possible adaptation and mitigation strategies that lead to environmentally friendly actions (behaviour). With the ongoing renewal of curricula in Slovenia, there is a unique opportunity to introduce topics on pressing environmental issues and link them with sustainability.

Here, we will present two case studies. The first deals with students' current knowledge and perceptions regarding conventional plastics, bioplastics, and biodegradable plastics, and the second is an analysis and comparison of current and renewed secondary school curricula regarding climate change and adaptation topics (ongoing). The first study was conducted within the national research project (ARIS J1-50014). Lower and upper secondary school students from three lower and four upper secondary schools (N = 697; age 12 - 19 years) were included in the study.

The questionnaire consisted of five parts:
(1) sociodemographic data (gender, age, school year);
(2) knowledge about the topic (five items);
(3) belief ratings for convenience, usefulness, waste reduction, environmental impact and health for:
(a) conventional plastics for food packaging,
(b) durable plastic products made from conventional plastics,
(c) bioplastics for food packaging and
(d) biodegradable plastic bags for fruit packaging;
(4) the assessment of whether the selected materials (glass, food cans, paper, bioplastics and biodegradable plastics) are better or worse for the environment compared to conventional plastics and
(5) the willingness to pay (WTP) more for products made from:
(a) biodegradable or
(b) bioplastics.

The results showed that students' knowledge of bioplastics was generally low (36%). Younger students knew significantly less than older students. Biodegradable plastics are perceived positively by the students and rated better than conventional plastics. Students are aware that single-use plastic is less environmentally friendly than durable plastic. While older students are undecided about WTP, younger students are less willing to pay more for bioplastics or biodegradable plastic products than older students. This study clearly shows that students are unfamiliar with different plastic materials, even though they are confronted with them daily. Furthermore, the results also show the gap between students' environmental awareness and consumer behaviour. Several teaching objectives regarding plastic pollution have been integrated into the renewed curricula and supplemented with didactical recommendations (i.e. chemistry and biology). The second study (ongoing), linked with the first, deals with climate change and adaptation topics integration into schools and school curricula as a part of the recently launched seven-year LIFE4ADAPT project (https://www.gov.si/zbirke/projekti-in-programi/life4adapt/). Our first steps will be to investigate the integration of climate change and adaptation topics into the current and renewed school curricula (until September 2025), followed by focus interviews with teachers. The results of the analysis will also be presented and discussed.

Keywords: Curricular reform, students, knowledge, beliefs, WTP, bioplastics, climate change.