In Podcast #17 the Virginia Trekkers take you to the TFC Recycling Center in Chester, Virginia (which is in the Coastal Plains region).  Recycling is very important because it helps keep Virginia green and beautiful.  Find out what happens to your trash after the recycling truck carries it away.  See how sorting is an important skill in the recycling process.  Explore the different parts of a MRF (Materials Recovery Facility).  Discover how your recycled products travel across the United States and even across the world! Come on, let’s go trekkin’! (Trouble viewing the YouTube video? Try Vimeo or direct link). If you hear a truck engine and Alfonso’s voice, that’s from our Activity below. Scroll down and push the button to turn it off. Sorry!

Recycling can save a lot of natural resources, but there are also other ways to conserve (Image credit):

Reduce:  In 1960, the average American produced 2.7 pounds of waste per day.  Today the average American produces 4.5 pounds of waste per day. (Source)  What can you do to produce less trash?

Recycle:  Aluminum cans are 100% recyclable and can be reused over and over again.  Recycling one aluminum can saves enough energy to power a television for 3 hours! (Source)  Most types of paper are also recyclable.  Recycling one ton of paper saves 17 trees, 3 cubic yards of landfill space, and 7,000 gallons of water! (Source) Are you recycling as much as you can?

Reuse: Use refillable water bottles instead of the disposable kind!  Plastic is made from petroleum which is a nonrenewable resource. It takes 17 million barrels of oil—enough to fuel a million cars for a year—to make the 22 billion water bottles that Americans' dispose of each year!  Plus, bottled water is no safer or cleaner than tap water, but it costs thousands of times more to produce and transport. (Source) When you think about it, even recycling the bottles costs energy!  So it’s best to reuse. What else can you reuse?


Here is a Google map of the recycling plant we visited. Click +/- buttons in the bottom right to zoom in or out.



This is a 360 view outside the recycling plant we visited. Click and drag to look around!



This is an old Flash activity about recycling. We got it to work using Ruffle!


Social Studies

K.11 The student will investigate and understand that natural resources can be used responsibly. Key ideas include

a) most natural resources are limited;

b) human actions can affect the availability of natural resources; and

c) reducing, reusing, and recycling are ways to conserve natural resources.


1.8 The student will investigate and understand that natural resources can be used responsibly. Key ideas include

a) most natural resources are limited;

b) human actions can affect the availability of natural resources; and

c) reducing, reusing, and recycling are ways to conserve natural resources.


3.2 The student will investigate and understand that the direction and size of force affects the motion of an object. Key ideas include

a) multiple forces may act on an object;

b) the net force on an object determines how an object moves;

c) simple machines increase or change the direction of a force; and

d) simple and compound machines have many applications.


5.4 The student will investigate and understand that electricity is transmitted and used

in daily life. Key ideas include

a) electricity flows easily through conductors but not insulators;

c) static electricity can be generated by rubbing certain materials together;

d) electrical energy can be transformed into radiant, mechanical, and thermal energy; and

e) a current flowing through a wire creates a magnetic field.


5.9 The student will investigate and understand that the conservation of energy resources is important. Key ideas include

a) some sources of energy are considered renewable and others are not;

b) individuals and communities have means of conserving both energy and matter; and

c) advances in technology improve the ability to transfer and transform energy.