Field trip -- Local landfill. Written by Guest Blogger Dave (aka Mr. Patrow)

The following photos are all from one day in the life of our AP Environmental Science class.

This is the majority of the class.  Three of the boys are off making trouble someplace:-)

Mr. Patrow insists that students take detailed notes about garbage.

Don't slide down this or you're in for a smelly landing. 

All smiles for the garbage dump. (The black pillars in the back are the landfill methane vents.)

 Things don't always work the way they are supposed to.  A non-functioning sedimentation tank.

Another photo of the same tank with garbage floating in the upper chamber. 

 

You can't see them, but families were sorting through this pile as we walked by.  You can see the bags of items they have collected to sell for recycling. 

Jen sharing the virtues of cloth diapers after we got back to the school.  Disposable diapers take a lot of room in landfills in the USA -- the 3rd largest item after food and drink containers.  Here disposable diapers are now commonly used and some end up in landfills.  Many others unfortunately end up shredded by dogs or in local rivers or roadside ditches.  Cloth diapers are a much better alternative!  (Yes, Jenn added a few editorial comments to Dave's one line caption here!)