Students Visit the Franklin County Landfill

On March 22, TRECA Digital Academy students visited the Franklin County Landfill. 

The Solid Waste Authority of Central Ohio (SWACO) serves Franklin County and neighboring areas with solutions for solid waste. On our visit, students saw first-hand why it's important to reduce, reuse, and recycle. Landfills are designed to prevent materials from decomposing in order to keep the upper levels stable, so anything that can be recycled should! In Franklin county, SWACO estimates that about 75% of materials thrown away could either be composted, recycled, repaired, or reused.

Students used microscopes to examine the many living creatures that help break down materials into nutrient-dense compost. After learning about nature’s recyclers, students took a bus tour of the active landfill site, watching large garbage trucks and semi’s dump huge piles of trash onto the working face of the landfill. Compactors, which look like large bulldozers, roll over the mounds of trash, compacting layers underneath their massive metal tires.