On a sunny day in September, the Franklin County Sanitary Landfill became an outdoor classroom for students in Science Teacher RaeAnna Wieland's (far right) AP Environmental Science class.  

 

Their tour began at SWACO's Resource Center where students learned about the engineering, regulations, and monitoring of a modern-day landfill.  They were introduced to SWACO's Recycle Right initiative, which is aimed at educating Franklin County residents and businesses about proper recycling in our county. 

 

The Franklin County Sanitary Landfill takes in roughly 4,000 tons of wasted materials every day, the weight equivalent of about 800 elephants.  About 70% of those materials could have been reduced, reused, or recycled. 

 

The tour ended with a trip onto the active face of the landfill where the group's bus parked alongside garbage trucks, landfill tipper trucks, compactors, and bulldozers as students watched what happens to their trash in its final stages before it is buried for good.