Monday, April 14, 2014

Waste Management Tour

Pack 1592, Den 5 did a tour of the Placer County Waste Management facility today.  A very informative tool on what happens with all our trash.
The Dump - Material dumped into the middle of the room, then pushed into the sides where it runs up these conveyor belts to begin the sorting process.
All the "green" waste, not just our family, but all plant waste gets collected, ground up and turned into compost, which you can then buy for use in your yard.  The scouts could put their hands in it, and feel the high temperature created as it's breaking down.
You can see here, the many yellow vest of all the people who are working to sort the 1,000 tons of trash placer county collects each day.  The back of the facility where I'm looking is where they pull out all the paper based products.  The closer area int he picture is focused on metals and plastics.
 This video shows the trash moving down the conveyor belt.  Right before the end, an electrical current is run through that shoots the metal cans over the trash shoot and into the metal recycling area.
Then, this guy has the job of going through all the aluminum cans and pulling out anything that got added in to it by mistake. 

Here, the scouts are watching the material nearing the finish line.  What makes it through here, will get loaded into a truck and buried in the landfill.