A Trip to the Landfill

Caroline Walsh
Lower School Director

Last June, Giovonne Calenda, Lower School Studio Teacher, suggested that Lower School take a trip to the Rhode Island Resource Recovery Corporation, known to the rest of us as the Johnston Landfill. After animated discussions and countless phone calls, it was decided that only students in Kindergarten through Grade 5 would go. Between big buses, foreign aromatic stimuli, and a literal mountain’s worth of garbage, we wanted to be sure all who went would genuinely enjoy it.

So, while our Oak and Ginkgo Room students held down the fort back on Butler Avenue, the other 86 members of our Lower School climbed onto the big Grey Goose Coach buses (some riding a bus for the very first time) and headed west to Johnston for a magnificent adventure.

Upon arrival at our destination, one bus unloaded for the indoor portion of the tour, while the other bus welcomed a tour guide. The moment the bus passed by the “scale house” where all waste management trucks stop to get weighed, the width of our girls’ eyes grew, and they just got bigger and bigger as we ventured further and further into this ‘other world’. We learned that the gargantuan heap of tires gets separated into two groups: those that can be reused and are sent off to Third World countries, and those that go to a rubber plant in Western Massachusetts where they are burned and turned into energy. Climbing to the very top of the landfill itself (461 feet), the girls were reminded that – simply put – we were sitting on one big pile of garbage. As they looked around, they spotted turkey vultures, seagulls, and of course, the whole reason we were there, TODAY’S TRASH. One day’s waste is the equivalent of one football field in width and length, fifteen feet deep – that’s about 6,463,160 gallons of milk. As one very pithy First Grader remarked, “That’s a lot!” In spite of the thick fog, our small girls sitting excitedly in a big bus realized the enormity of a day’s worth of garbage in Rhode Island.

While returning to the main building, Ms. Taylor led the girls in songs that celebrated the earth while also reminding us of our responsibility to the environment. Once inside, the girls were welcomed into a room with a soft lovely carpet and beautiful benches, both made from . . . plastic bags! When asked if anyone was wearing rubber clothing, not a single hand went up. But then one of our Third Graders was told that her fleece jacket was just that, plastic -- the truth is: fleece is plastic!!!

So, the next time you recycle your milk carton, just remember that plastic jug may become a piece of furniture in a house, another bottle, or even a pair of fleece mittens for a new baby.

It was a truly tremendous trip, one well worth taking, and a wonderful way to bring our girls together.