Our Visit to the Transfer Station and Landfill

Out first stop was at the Transfer Station.  This is where we can take our rubbish and recycling or things we no longer need.  It is called a transfer station because our recycling and rubbish is sorted and transferred to its new home.  

Did you know that a school polar fleece is made out of 6 recycled bottles?

Chris showed us what we can recycle.  In Hawke's Bay we can recycle things that have the recycling numbers 1-7.  We can't recycle gladwrap, chippie and muesli bar packets, shopping bags and the new milk bottles that keep out the light.   

We got to put some of Chris' recycling into the big recycling containers.  Look at all the things that we can't recycle!

Did you know that 2.5 kg of rubbish per person, per day is created in NZ!

When cars and trucks come in to dump rubbish they are weighed.  We hopped on the scales and altogether room 1 weighed 940 kg!  It would cost $140 to dump us.

Look at all the rubbish!  The grader pushes the rubbish down a chute and into a truck.

Here is the  big truck, heading down to the rubbish chute. 

We hopped back on the bus and headed to the landfill.  This is where all the rubbish from the transfer station is taken.

We drove up a big hill and looked down on the landfill.  The working area is never bigger than a rugby field. 

The big truck took all the rubbish to the landfill.  Here it is unloading.  We saw lots of rubbish trucks too.

There were lots of machines moving the rubbish.

There were lots of seagulls because seagulls like to eat all the food scraps we throw away.

We wore high visibility vests to keep us safe.

On the fences all around the landfill are perfume bottles that spray the air.  

Look at the wheels of the crusher truck.   The crusher truck pushes down rubbish to make it as small as possible.

We found out that the big hill we were on is actually a big hill of rubbish.  There are pipes coming out of the hill.  They take out the methane gas.

This is a leachate pond.  All the yucky water from the landfill is cleaned so it can be used to water the grass and trees.  

The methane gas is turned into electricity.  

How can we make our big rubbish piles smaller so Hawke's Bay doesn't turn into hills of rubbish?

Reduce, Reuse, Recycle!

Let's do it!!!!!!!!!