One Man's Trash!

This week a lot of things happened. Thursday we all went to the recycling center and learned a large amount of things that most of us didn't know before. One of the awesome things that we saw was a machine that separated the aluminum cans from any other materials that weren't aluminum such as tin or steel cans. The machine used a magnetic conveyer belt that didn't stick to the pop cans. We learned how they conserved space by taking all of the paper and using a baler which made the paper take the form of something like a hay bale. If they didn't use the baler, then they wouldn't have very much space to work.

Also everybody got to go in one of the inner offices and sit on a rug that was crocheted out of textile scraps, we saw art that was made from everyday things like soda cans and bottle caps. On our way there we also experienced something new we all took the city bus to the recycling center, but we walked all the way back.
On Tuesday the 7/8 crew took out all the trash and recycling from all the classrooms at 9:35 in the morning and put it all in the appropriate places. The next day on Wednesday at the same time in the morning as the day before, we had prepared ourselves with science goggles, masks that looked like they belonged on surgeons, and latex gloves. Then we all went to different appointed areas and collected the 24 hours worth of trash and recycling from the entire building. We went through everything that was collected and sorted it into different groups like Food Waste, Garbage, and Recycling. There were also other more specific groups, but after our crew sorted out each group we weighed everything and put the amount in lbs on the board. Some of the things that were in the trash were pretty disgusting but all of us survived digging through it all.

Afterwards we learned that our masks and safety gear scared some of the much younger kids pretty badly, having them stopping and running in the opposite direction to get away from the "scary monsters" that we looked like. Monday we didn't have a field trip and worked on Lit. Circles, reading our favorite place stories, and the first day of a ultimately healthier lunch that tasted much better than the school district lunch that we had before. Today, on Friday we were going to go to a dairy farm but that got cancelled, so we have been reading to the kindergardeners and finishing our Lit. circles and trying to finish our energy pamphlets.