Rio is becoming a Waste Free School!
In 2005 a team of teachers from Rio del Mar toured the Buena Vista landfill near Watsonville. The team learned about how high the landfill is now, how much higher it is allowed to go before it is deemed "full" or "filled", and what recycling efforts are being carried out there. Here are some pictures from the Buena Vista Landfill.
Just look at all that stuff! What looks like bare ground is actually landfill covered with a layer of dirt ready for another layer of trash to be piled on top.
There is recycling that goes on at the Buena Vista landfill. Even though there are several efforts going on at the landfill to recycle various kinds of waste, the biggest cycling center is located in Castroville.
Here are some pictures showing what comes in on one day,
day after day after day.
This is one of the conveyor belts carrying in recyclables to be sorted. Does it ever end?
Each person working on the "line" specializes in only one recyclable. What one must remember is this is the stuff that isn't garbage; it's recyclable material that can be used again to save natural resources.
Plastics drink bottles and other plastic containers go into
one huge bin.
Metals such as brass and copper are pulled off the conveyor belt to be
recycled.
Outside there is still more recyling in
evidence: piles of broken glass, cardboard, and other stuff that's been
separated from all the stuff hauled in on the trucks.
At
Rio we're just beginning our formal status as a Waste Free School.
During the 2005 Harvest Festival we set up a display to help educate our
students and families on what is recyclable. Throughout the year and
next more and more work will be done to help our school reduce waste and
to recycle more.