Last week Mrs. Walker’s Grade 5/6 class took a trip to the Creston Landfill. We looked at where the materials are recycled, how waste is separated into categories like metal, yard waste, wood materials and garbage. The Creston Landfill also has several product stewardship programs for items like propane containers and tires. When we went to the landfill area, students were surprised by how much material you could see in the garbage, that was not actually garbage! There was clothing that could have gone to Gleaners, leaves that could have been composted, plastic that could have been recycled and wood which could have been separated out to use in the landfill. We discussed reasons of why those items were in the garbage. Maybe the people didn’t know where to donate reusable items, or what waste could be recycled or composted? Maybe for some businesses like construction companies, it is too time consuming to sort their waste into the different categories? We talked about barriers to reducing waste, and ways we could help others reduce the amount of actual garbage that ends up in our municipal landfill by Reducing, Reusing, Recycling, Composting and Re-Thinking!
