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Trash Class

Lebanon, New Hampshire - October 20, 2009

The sights and sounds of the Lebanon, N.H., landfill... but on this day students are turning the dump into a classroom.

"We are in here today to study about waste management," said Lexie Keane, a sixth-grader.

The Seminary Hill sixth-graders are studying what happens to all their garbage once it leaves the school. And it doesn't take long for their hands-on lesson to catch on.

"When it is put into the landfill there is a liner. And they squeeze all the air and moisture out of it but it doesn't decompose," student Rafael Womer explained.

Which means years and years of waste keeps piling up. Something teachers say is a little known fact about trash.

"They tend to think that when you throw trash away it is gone forever. But there trash is sitting right there in that landfill," said Judie Pristaw of Seminary Hill Elementary School. "They have a finite source of resources in their world and they are going to have to decide how they want to use them."

From the landfill to the recycling facility, the kids see firsthand how literally tons of aluminum stays out of the ground if it is properly recycled. A tangible incentive for kids who are taught the practice every day.

"If we do change to doing more recyclables and using container that can be reused than we can save a lot of the environment," Womer said.

"I think it is really important because we need to keep the earth safe," Lexie Keane said.

The facility gives dozens of tours every year to students from both New Hampshire and Vermont. One of the goals is to teach the kids to be good stewards of the land by explaining that once their trash goes out of site, it should not go out of mind.

Adam Sullivan - WCAX News