field trip

Today we toured the Athens-Clarke County recycling facility with a group of our homeschooling friends. It was a very educational trip, as well as fun! We learned a lot about recycling in our area, and got to see how the process of separating all the materials works, after we put the cans and bottles in our recycling bin and set it out on trash day.

There was a wonderful classroom there with lots of visual aids for learning about recycling. We talked about why it is important to recycle and learned about some of the things that are being made from recycled materials. Then we headed out for the tour, stopping at the big scale that they weigh the trucks on (our group weighed 1126 lb!)







Then we saw some of the huge piles of materials waiting to be processed, and watched as the mixed containers (plastic, glass, aluminum) went up a conveyor belt and were sorted by hand (yes- by hand!) into the different groups. We also saw the workers having to pick out (again, by hand) all the items which were not supposed to be there, such as non-recyclable plastics and trash.



Then we saw how the sorted materials go up into a bailer to be compressed and tied into large cubes, and then carried off by forklifts. It is amazing how much stuff there was.





One of the things we talked about was using less in the first place, in order to create less waste (recyclable or otherwise) in the end. This is really huge. Our guide told the kids we need to think about the things we buy before we bring them home. Think about how long they will be useful to us and what we plan to do with them when we are through using them. So many people think nothing about throwing stuff into the trash, because once it is out of their home they don't have to see it anymore. This needs to change!! Our attitude about how much of our resources we use and what we do with it when we are done needs to change. We'd like to plan a followup trip to the landfill next so the kids can see what happens to all the stuff that cannot be (or isn't) recycled.

This brings me to something else I wanted to share here- if you have not watched The Story of Stuff yet, I'd like to urge you to do so. It takes just 20 minutes and will help you understand more about the impact our consumer driven lives are having on our earth, and what we can do to change our attitudes and habits. Take the time to watch- you won't be sorry!