Cold Canyon Tour

The Zero Waste Club took a tour of the Cold Canyon Landfill and Recycling Center! We got to drive up to the site where they are currently burying trash, meet the falconer who keeps the birds from eating stuff, and go inside the recycling center where they hand sort everything you put in your blue bin.

It was a beautiful day and I was personally surprised at how nice the landfill was. I didn't notice too much of a smell, and the whole trash mountain that we drove on had been planted with grass and actually looked decent.

Random facts from the tour:

• 300 to 500 tons are buried every day at the landfill.
• By compacting the trash with a heavy tractor driving back and forth over it, they are able to fit 8 times as much stuff in the same volume.
• 18 people hand sort all of the recycling in the recycling center.
• The recyclables are then shipped away to other locations to be reprocessed.
• Buying goods "made from recycled material" increases the market price for recyclables, making recycling more economically attractive for waste management institutions everywhere.

Here are some pictures from the day: