How to play Where’s the Plastic?
Where’s the Plastic? is a free daily geography game about plastic. Every day there are five true stories: a ban, a spill, an invention, a discovery. Your job is to find where each one happened on a 3D globe. The closer you tap, the more points you get. A round takes about two minutes.
How to play, step by step
- Open today’s round. There’s nothing to sign up for and nothing to download.
- Read the clue. It tells you what kind of place to look for, such as a city, an island or a beach, and gives a hint like the country, the region or the sea.
- Turn and zoom the globe, then tap where you think it happened.
- See how far off you were, your points, the real place, a photo and the true story behind it.
- After five questions, see your score for the day and send a friend a link to beat it.
The basics
- Five questions every day, each about something real that happened to plastic somewhere on Earth.
- Tap the globe where you think it happened. The closer you land, the more points you get.
- A new round starts at midnight New York time, which is 06:00 where you are. Everyone plays the same five questions that day, so scores compare directly.
- Prefer to aim first? Tick “Aim first”, place your pin, move it as often as you like, then press “Drop my pin here”.
How a tap is scored
Each question is worth up to 100 points, and only the distance counts. Points drop quickly over the first few hundred miles, then more gently, so a miss by a continent still earns something. Landing within about 450 miles of the exact opposite side of the Earth scores 0.
| Miles off | Kilometres | Points |
|---|---|---|
| 0 | 0 | 100 |
| 10 | 16 | 100 |
| 25 | 40 | 99 |
| 50 | 80 | 98 |
| 100 | 161 | 95 |
| 250 | 402 | 89 |
| 500 | 805 | 82 |
| 1,000 | 1,609 | 71 |
| 2,000 | 3,219 | 58 |
| 3,000 | 4,828 | 50 |
| 5,000 | 8,047 | 41 |
| 8,000 | 12,875 | 33 |
Later questions count more
Questions 1 and 2 count once, question 3 twice, and questions 4 and 5 three times. A perfect day is 100 + 100 + 200 + 300 + 300 = 1,000 points.
The dots
- 🏆 100: perfect
- 🟢 90 to 99: great
- 🟡 50 to 89: ballpark
- 🔴 1 to 49: miles off
- ⚫ 0: the other side of the world
The stories
After each tap you see where it really happened and a short true story. Each story names its source and shows how strong the evidence is: Strong (two or more good independent studies agree), Emerging (one good study, or a few with known limits), Weak (modelled, seriously limited or disputed), None (no study has tested this) or Documented event (an event, reported by the source shown). Facts can change, especially records and ongoing negotiations, so every question carries the date it was checked.
The photos
Most stories come with a photo of the place or the event. The photos come from free collections such as Wikimedia Commons, and each one names the photographer and its licence. When a photo shows something similar rather than the event itself, it says so.
Streaks and stats
Play on consecutive days to build a streak. Your scores and streak are kept in this browser; there is no account to create.
Questions people ask
Is it free?
Yes. Ads pay for the game. There’s no account and no app to download.
When does a new round start?
At midnight New York time, which is 06:00 where you are. Everyone plays the same five questions that day.
Do I need to be good at geography?
No. Every clue says what kind of place to look for and gives a hint. Even a miss by a few hundred miles still scores well.
Are the stories true?
Yes. Each one comes from a source we opened and checked, such as a news report, a study or an official page. Every story shows its source, how strong the evidence is and the date it was checked. Every question is read and approved by a person before it goes live.
Something looks wrong in a story. What do I do?
Use “Report a problem” under the story. We check every report.
How do I challenge a friend?
At the end of a round, press “Challenge a friend”. Your friend gets a link with your score and your five dots, never the answers.
What happens to my data?
Your results stay in your browser. Our server keeps the score of each tap for 35 days, but not the point you tapped. The privacy page has the details.
Who makes it?
Get Plastic Out, a small independent project from the Czech Republic. We also make a free home plastic audit at audit.getplasticout.com.