By Hunter & Brielle
For our second day of intensive learning, the seventh grade went to Burlington County’s Recycling Center. First, we were greeted by the staff, who welcomed us to the facility. Jesse Nicieza, Assistant Recycling Coordinator, prepared an interesting presentation, which enhanced our understanding of the recycling process at the center. We learned what materials are recyclable, such as plastic water bottles and cardboard as opposed to dangerous items such as batteries and lighters. (Batteries often explode when pressurized during the recycling process, and when they’re surround by paper and plastic, that’s not good!) One of the facts that surprised everyone is that the center now accepts pizza boxes as long as they are not overly greasy. In addition, we were given a brief overview of the process of recycling in Burlington County so that we knew what to expect on our tour. It’s a complex maze of different mechanical separators, with each one meant to pull out a different, specific recyclable material. There are even optical sensors, which use pressurized air or magnets to blast and attract materials into different sorting areas.
Afterwards, we split into two groups. The first group took a tour of the back of the center where all the recycling magic happens. At this recycling center, only the first half of the recycling process happens. First, the garbage trucks collect all the recyclable materials. Then, the trucks transport those materials to the Materials Recovery Facility (MRF, affectionately pronounced murph by the employees).
One especially surprising part of the tour was seeing the number of humans it takes to effectively sort recycling. It’s not an automatic process and almost every recycling mistake needs to be corrected by human hands on the recycling line. We watched the workers sort and organize the different types of materials that they receive. Another really interesting part of the tour was seeing toys that the workers saved like Spiderman, Pikachu, Darth Vader, and others. Many of them had little collections of interesting objects — toys, trophies, sculptures, and other collectibles — that they had fished out of the conveyor belt during their work. We learned that each material is baled separately and then sold to other companies in the United States and Canada that then reuse the materials. The professionals at the recycling center showed us one of the final products of these efforts — a bottle of crushed glass aggregate that is often used in making roads and other construction; though it looked like stones, it was exceptionally light to hold in our hands, like a little stone marshmallow full of air. We even got to meet and take a photograph with the Burlington County Commissioner, Tom Pullion, who was visiting the plant.
While one group was taking a tour, the other group was doing a recycling activity. Each of us was asked to bring one item that we knew we could recycle and another item that we were not sure we could recycle. Then, we got in a circle and tossed all the items in the middle to decide which materials were recyclable and which ones weren’t. After we sorted these items out our coordinator, Jesse, told us if we were right or not. One surprising fact we learned is that you shouldn’t take the caps off of bottles before throwing them in the recycling bin because the bottles get crushed and can get stuck in the machinery, which is dangerous for the workers.
When we came back to school, we had a chance to reflect on what we learned and brainstorm ways that we can share this information with the wider MFS community. We worked together to create posters to place around MFS about recycling. This trip was a unique and educational experience.