Homeschool Science: Field Trip to a Single-Stream Recycling Material Recovery Facility

Because we haven't spent quite enough time studying trash yet!

I don't know if you've ever thought about it before, but how our communities handle municipal solid waste is really fascinating, and it makes a terrific study for science or civics. For Will, this field trip is part of her AP Environmental Science study, specifically Unit 8: Aquatic and Terrestrial Pollution. For Syd, this is part of her Honors Biology study, specifically CK-Biology Chapter 12: Communities and Populations.

This is Ray's Trash Service, a single-stream recycling service in Indianapolis:

That's not to say that they don't take any sorted material at all--here's where they receive baled recyclables from some businesses:

Did you know that you CAN recycle shrink wrap? You can't just put it in your recycling bin, though--Ray's accepts baled shrink wrap from certain businesses.

There were so many epic big machines here!

Here is where all of the rest of the recycling is unloaded--it's a big mountain of unsorted recyclables!

Doesn't it sort of make you want to walk around on top of it and look for interesting stuff? No? Where's your sense of adventure?!?

Here's one of the Ray's trucks preparing to back up into the warehouse and add to the mountain:

Oh, and here's my favorite part of the field trip!

I'm happy anytime I get to wear a hard hat!

The recycling comes to Ray's unsorted, but is then sorted in various ways by various means. Here's where humans stand at a conveyor belt and sort recyclables by hand:

We were there during their break, but mostly there are humans here:

Whatever they pull out at their station, they put down a giant tunnel to a collection area on the floor below:

After the humans comes an OCC Screen. It's got big rotating wheels that carry big pieces of cardboard across it, while everything else falls below:

  There are catwalks around the facility, and when you walk them you can follow the path of various conveyors sorting various recyclables:

This is a trommel. It's got holes of different sizes so that different things fall through into different bins:

The warehouse is HUGE!

Here, we're following the path of paper being sorted:

And now we're on past more conveyors--

--check out all of those plastic milk jugs!

--and on to see where sorted materials are baled and then sent out of the facility:

These are all aluminum cans:

This is a specific type of paper:

Here's cardboard being baled:

Whatever actual trash has made its way to the recycling facility gets sorted out and put into separate bins that then go to the incinerator that we saw a bit of during our field trip to the landfill:

The reality of this recycling facility was so much more interesting than I'd imagined it would be--and I was already thinking it would be interesting, because I knew we'd get to wear hard hats! It reminded me in many ways of the Dixie Cup factory that my Pappa worked in and that I'd get to visit every now and then when I was small--all those conveyor belts and all that machinery! Do kids still get to go on real factory tours these days?

Or did they, before the pandemic?

Girl Scout Cookie Season 2020: The Year of the Pandemic

Every Girl Scout cookie season, there's always (at least) One Big Kerfuffle that becomes the way that I remember that cookie season.

There was The Year Council Ran out of Thin Mints.
There was The Year Wal-mart Didn't Let Us Have Cookie Booths until the End of the Season.
There was The Year I Got the Flu.
There was The Year Every Kid Decided They Wanted to Sell 1,000 Boxes.
There was The Year It Snowed and they Postponed Cookie Delivery.

This year has been The Year of the Pandemic.

Fortunately, my own Girl Scout troop holds the standard that we finish meeting Scout and troop sales goals the weekend BEFORE the last weekend of the season, AT THE LATEST. And even then, I prefer that the kids meet their own sales goals the weekend before that. Even with the big goals that many of my Scouts have, the weekly benchmarks are still quite do-able that way, and it leaves room at the end of the season for emergencies.

Such as, say, a global pandemic...

It's just happenstance that the pandemic hit after my Girl Scout troop finished their sales; honestly, the country probably should have been practicing social distancing a LOT sooner than it did. But for those who just happened to not have finished their cookie sales before last weekend... man, it was a truly sucky situation. It's easy to say that everyone should stay home, but if you have $2,500 worth of Girl Scout cookies in your house, and your council is sticking to the line that you have to pay for them, then what on earth are you going to do? Maybe you can afford to pay $2,500 out of your own pocket, or out of the children's troop bank account, but maybe you can't.

I mean, check it out. This is what my front hallway looked like during cookie season:



Can you imagine if the kids suddenly had nowhere to sell those cookies, or if we still had even half that amount after it became unsafe to be out and about selling them to thousands of people?

So yeah, there were Girl Scout troops out trying to sell Girl Scout cookies last weekend, even after my own family was low-key quarantining ourselves. And then on-the-ground reports started coming in. A troop at one big grocery chain got sent home by management, which then put out a release that they were no longer hosting cookie booths that season.  The same exact thing happened at another large chain store. Fortunately, after stores started cancelling booths, council sent out an announcement that they were ending the cookie season early and they'd figure out a way for troops to not have to take on the burden of unsold boxes of cookies. Which I imagine is SUCH a relief, except troops still don't know exactly how council is going to accomplish that, and it's unclear if they'll get to retain the profit from those boxes that they were relying on and the sales numbers that the kids needed to meet their goals.

It has been TOUGH, you guys! Just one more tough little thing in the sea of tough little things that we've had to struggle with so far, but it adds to our stress levels, you know?

Anyway, enough of that negativity--on to the celebrations!

Check out the Girl Scout cookie sales tote that Will designed and I sewed:

 It's reversible, so you don't have to advertise Girl Scout cookies all year, and the top zips shut, so you can keep your stuff secure, and LOOK HOW MANY GIRL SCOUT COOKIES IT HOLDS:



Here's how I made the tote bag, and here's how I added the zippered top. I've got three more of these in progress, two of which Will and I are making low-key Halloween-themed for our anticipated adventure trick-or-treating in Disney World this year fingers crossed knock on wood.

Next celebration: check out how many boxes of Girl Scout cookies this kid sold this year!



I promise that we do not permit the animals to be all over the cookies like this normally, but they are codependently attached to their girls, and so where the kids pose, so do they:

 Syd set her goal at 600 boxes of Girl Scout cookies this year; this is the first time in three years that she's chosen to sell fewer than 1,000 boxes, and she had some anxiety about lowering her goal. That means that sticking to that lower goal was really good practice in self-management; just as it's important to set yourself big challenges, it's also important to not make every single thing in your life a big challenge.

Just between us, though: the real reason Syd didn't sell 1,000 boxes this year is that they dropped the ipod touch from the 1,000-box prizes, and there weren't any other 1,000-box prizes that she super wanted. Tangible rewards really do motivate, IF they're something that the people you want to motivate really want. Pick the wrong tangible reward to offer, and you'll lose that motivation.

This kid did sell 1,000 boxes of Girl Scout cookies again this year, but again, it wasn't because of the tangible reward. SHE had her heart set on a kayak, which they also dropped from the 1,000-box prizes! Instead, check out what Will was most excited about:

That is 189 boxes of cookies donated to the Backpack Buddies program in a local school system. At Girl Scout cookie booths, the kids would ask shoppers if they'd like to buy a box of cookies for a Backpack Buddy kid, or donate their change towards the purchase of a box. Thanks to the generous people in our community, every single Backpack Buddy kid received their very own box of Girl Scout cookies before they left for Spring Break!

Good thing, too, because children vulnerable to food insecurity are even more vulnerable when schools, a primary resource for meals, are shut down due to the pandemic. 

Will has really grown in her interest in and desire for service towards those vulnerable to food insecurity. Shall I pat myself on the back and assume that it's all those years I dragged the kids to volunteer with me at the local food bank? Or should I instead, and more accurately, attribute it to our Girl Scout troop's monthly meet-up to pack the weekend bags for our local school system's Backpack Buddies program. Check out how much fun she's having being of service with her friends!

She's already expressed interest in perhaps using food insecurity as the problem that guides her Girl Scout Gold Award, and I would be thrilled if she did. And it's a problem that she'd perhaps never have thought about enough to get interested in without this specific activity of selling Girl Scout cookies, and the fun motivation of trying to get enough boxes donated, and the companionable work of volunteering with her Girl Scout sisters. 

It's an honor to help these kids become the compassionate, powerful, capable people they're meant to be.

Mother's Day Gifts that This Mother Actually Wants

Fun fact: some mothers don't wear jewelry or perfume.

Some mothers don't get their hair and nails done, and the idea of a stranger massaging them makes them want to crawl out of their skin.

Some mothers hate the idea of presents altogether, and want only the gift of family time.

I am none of those mothers. I like stuff! But, like, particular stuff. Not jewelry and perfume and makeup stuff. And please don't massage me.

In case you, too, know a mother who likes stuff, but maybe not jewelry and perfume and makeup stuff, and they don't want strangers to touch them, it might be tricky figuring out what stuff will appeal to them, in the lead-up to Mother's Day when all the stuff that's being marketed to mothers (as it is in all the other days, sigh) is jewelry and perfume and makeup.

So here's the kind of stuff that I like, and if you know someone who's also into books and music and being comfy and has interesting hobbies and weird obsessions, then they might like this stuff, too!

DELICIOUS DRINKS THAT WON'T GET COLD

Matt bought this for me for my birthday last year, and it has changed my life for the better. It keeps your coffee or tea HOT FOREVER. Seriously, one time I was unpacking my backpack after a previous day's adventure, noticed that there was still a little coffee leftover in this mug, and on a whim took a sip. It was still hot!

I'm not even ashamed to tell you that I happily sat down and drank the rest of that day-old coffee right then and there. Nobody should turn down a second cup of still-hot coffee!

I'm the only person in the family who drinks coffee (currently, at least--I mean, I DO have two teenagers in the house now!), so I'd never splurge on anything more bulky or expensive than the French press that I currently own. But if someone just GAVE me a fancy coffee maker with a timer and lots of features and it makes a bunch of different kinds of coffee...

Well, you can't exactly turn down a present, now can you?

BAGS THAT HOLD ALL THE THINGS

Because I'm surely not the only person still using the same backpack that I carried in college, right? And hauling my picnic supplies in whatever reusable shopping bags that I got free from random stores?

I LONG for a backpack that doesn't have a Jansport label!

If you prefer messenger bags to backpacks, there are grown-up options for you, too! I adore my pink messenger back with a dinosaur screen-printed on it, but it probably wouldn't hurt to have a messenger back that I can carry when I'm wearing dress pants...

HOBBY SUPPLIES

I'm also surely not the only person who never buys anything that's just for me unless it's actually for someone else? Like, sewing supplies so I can make a kid some clothes, or scrapbook supplies to make the family photo album look cute?

Photography is one of those hobbies that I enjoy, but feel like I don't spend enough time learning about or practicing to really improve my skills. Whatever, though--it's still fun, and piddling away with new tools makes it even more fun, especially because new and better equipment makes it look like it's MY skills that have improved!

WARM SOCKS, CUTE SOCKS AND FUZZY SLIPPERS

Socks and slippers are DEEPLY important to me, as they should be to you, too! My feet are always cold in the winter, and unless my toes are tucked two layers deep into wool socks, or nestling inside my fuzzy dinosaur slippers, I legit worry that they're going to get frostbite and gangrene and have to be amputated.

I bought these dinosaur slippers for myself for Christmas Eve, at the same time that I bought wolf slippers for Will and monster slippers for Syd and Matt. And I LOVE them! They're soft and floofy and I swear, my toes can be absolutely numb because I'm walking around the cold house barefoot like a fool, but I put them on and within minutes they begin tingling as the circulation starts to return.

DELIGHTFUL SHEETS

I bought the sheets above technically for Matt, and technically for Valentine's Day, but really because all three of our sheet sets are old and horrible and I wanted new ones. I bought one set of flannel and one set of jersey cotton, and then when I decided that I loved them I bought a second set of each, and I am quite comfy and happy with them!

Also, in my mind the perfect Mother's Day gift would be new sheets, a bottle of wine, the promise of homemade brownies, and a brand-new book.

BOOKS AND MUSIC

I get all my media from the library, which is awesome and I'll never not use the library, but Dude, how I wish for my very own box set of the Master and Commander series, with that Navy ship scene across the spines!

For a Mother's Day years ago, Matt bought me this Harry Potter set with a scene of Hogwarts castle across the spines, and it's so beloved that I keep it here on my desk so I can look at it constantly.

Colored pencils don't exactly match my love of music, because you can't really link to the vinyl versions of current Broadway original cast recordings (go to your local indie record store and tell them that you want the OBCR of Hadestown and Six on vinyl, please!), but check out how they've given all the colors Broadway names! There are several little places that do this--I sent a care package to my best friend once that included crayons with Golden Girl-themed wrappers, and they were so baller I can't even tell you.

Whether you're in the market for Mother's Day stuff or not, I'd be so curious to know what YOUR favorite stuff is! What are your most delicious beverages? What do you most like to carry your belongings around in? What are YOUR favorite books and albums? What do you wish you had for your fun hobbies?

P.S. Check out my Craft Knife Facebook page, where I promise that I do NOT spend all my time expressing my longing for the Master and Commander box set with the Naval ship scene across the spines.

I mean, I don't NOT spend all my time expressing my longing for it...