My Favorite Field Trip

After lunch was through, I hurried back to Pollock Halls to retrieve my forgotten bus pass. Kelly, Kevin & I met the rest of the group on the intersection of North Bridge and Princes Street just in time to leave for the waste cabin. I really did not know what to expect from this “waste cabin”, but was eager and interested in learning more. After the 20 minute bus ride out of town, the gang headed up to the recycling station. We entered into a small “waste cabin” which was much more of a visual and hands on learning experience. Our guide Anita was helpful in explaining how the facility worked and its connection to city waste disposal. The waste cabin itself was essentially a learning tool geared towards a younger crowd, but our group found it amusing. This field trip was right up most of our allies, being a common interest in many of the group members academic studies.

Following a short video showing how a piece of trash is distributed through the waste disposal system, Anita threw us our very neon, and very small kid-sized safety vests. The group then departed for a tour of the facility. We first went into a large warehouse that reminded me of a giant yard sale. This was a space where citizens could bring their unwanted furniture and other items for reuse within the community. The facility provides this instead of yard sales because they are illegal in Scotland. Next the group and I made our way to the recycling bins. They were organized within categories like: batteries; wood; metals; etc. However, my favorite part of the tour had to be when a large machine called “The Crusher” (which is exactly what it sounds like) came to compact one of the bins. This large machine had the looks of a giant spiked roller, that would smash and rotate the recyclables until they were packed tightly.  It was really neat to see and I even got to snap a video and a few pictures.

We learned this particular recycling facility is a very important part of the Edinburgh Council’s waste structure, as well as one of the most efficient in Europe. Scotland is determined to minimize waste to ZERO within the next five years with their “Zero Waste” policy, and is the first in Europe to do so. Our group was lucky to be able to observe and take that experience into our future careers. Personally, I thought this field trip was really amazing. I like how organized the recycling units were and how everyday citizen’s cared enough about keeping their city gorgeous by preventing, minimizing, reusing, and recycling. I believe its important for the U.S. to take note of these practices and jump on the band wagon. These waste disposal practices can save money and can teach those to feel good about how they dispose of their waste in the proper and environmentally friendly way. Furthermore, I had a wonderful time and our visit to the Waste Education Cabin was one of my favorite field trips thus far. Thoughtfully, we were not left without a small but really cool gift: a recycled notebook made out of tires!