Field Trip: Recology Shoreway Station, San Carlos

When: Year-round, per docent availability.
Where: Recology Shoreway Station, San Carlos
Who: 3rd grade and up for private tours, all ages for public tours. Group size 10-40 people.

Review:
The Shoreway Station is a Materials Recovery Facility and Transfer Facility, so you can see machines sorting the incoming waste before it is bundled up to other locations for processing (be it recycling, compost or landfill).

The tour starts with a discussion of the familiar bins, and opportunity to ask questions.  This section of the tour is where to find out how to recycle that item you've hesitated about. I found out too that broken Pyrex doesn't go into the recycling bin, though it is glass - it contains different chemicals than what the recycling facilities can handle.

The star of the tour is the MRF Walkthrough. When there are younger children, they stay on a platform and observe the machinery. If everyone is above 3rd grade, everyone is able to walk through the MRF. This is a noisy tour, headphones are provided to hear the guide explain the machinery but just standing and watching the river of materials whiz by is memorable. Also, seeing the workers pull out mis-sorted materials and hearing horror stories, e.g. a fire once started because a lithium-ion battery had ended up in a recycling bin, and become wedged in the carton sorting machine  

After the MRF walkthrough, the tour shows where compost is heaped up, waiting to be loaded onto trucks. There is also a trash pile where trucks carry it to the Ox Mountain landfill. 
 For school groups, the tour guide will also discuss general ecology practices such as the 3Rs, renewable energy, water conservation.

Tip:

• Before you go, read a book on recycling such as Usborne's "See Inside Recycling and Rubbish". There are also worksheets available on the Recology - Education website.
• If there aren't enough people to make a particular tour, they also have free public tours on EventBrite - Rethink Waste. 
• Plastics: What's Recyclable - Great article by NPR with photos and video, follow-up from tour