First graders had an amazing trip on Thursday to the Springfield Sanitary Landfill and Franklin Ave Recycling Center. We learned so much about how trash is processed and the impact it has on the environment. At our first stop, we saw trash being processed in the landfill. We learned about where the trash goes and how it is handled to keep from polluting the area nearby. We even got to touch the types of materials that create the protective barrier that keeps trash contained. We learned that a landfill can only hold so much trash. Once it is full, the city must find somewhere new to put trash and that’s a tricky task! That’s why it’s so important that we do our part to make sure we keep as much out waste of the landfill as we can! We learned about the filtering system that the landfill uses to keep our groundwater clean. We also learned about leachate – the water that runs off from trash. Yuck! Processing leachate is an important part of preventing pollution and making the landfill sanitary.

Did You Know? It is illegal to take trash out of the landfill! Unfortunately, once trash enters the landfill, it can’t be removed. This means any recyclable materials that come in must stay in the landfill instead of getting a second life.