Our Trip to Recology in San Francisco

Each year students participate in service learning at our school. The third grade service learning project and much of the science curriculum is focused on environmental awareness and education. Students learn about recycling, composting and landfill. By the end of third grade they are our resident experts. They are in charge of the recycling for the entire school community. The girls provide information about reducing, reusing and recycling to teachers, staff and students. This year we were lucky enough to go on a field trip to the San Francisco dump and visit the recycling facility. The girls learned so much about recology from the folks at Recology. We visited "the pit," had a great time sorting waste, talking to the artist-in-residence and exploring the garden. Recology runs an incredible operation, which is being studied and imitated all over the world. Check out some of the pictures from our day of learning and adventure!

Recology (n): The science and practice of resource recovery.

Resource recovery is the reclaiming of "garbage" materials for a new use. It includes collecting, sorting, and processing materials that are traditionally viewed as waste and transforming them into the raw inputs used to create new products. Recycling and composting are among the best known resource recovery practices.