Field trip to Lee County waste to energy facility

       I think this by far was my favorite field trip.  Although it was smelly and many would think its weird that I would like a field trip about trash it is something that really hits home and truly makes you sit back and think about your environment and how many people just don't care.  We as humans produce so much trash and the fact that there are very few counties that have facilities that convert waste to energy is unbelievable.  The landfills of trash and those things we call "mount trashmore" are only getting bigger and we will soon not only run out of space, but the effect on the environment will be significant.  It is important that people come together and use the stuff that we see as waste and better the planet by reusing.  The presentation was extremely interesting and I thought that tour was really cool to see how it all worked.  Also walking going over the the recycling facility was very cool too.  I learned a lot on this trip and I think what Lee County is doing is so great and many need to take their lead.  It is amazing that the stuff we call waste and don't want can be used as energy and provide power for many people to live off of.  

This is the cubes that they make for each type of
thing recycled after it has all been sorted 

This is all the pictures we saw during the presentation.  He is pointed to the picture in which he explained that that was the only amount of land and area their facility would need, since most of the waste is turned into energy and then the rest is plowed over and able to make room for more

 This is the picture of the control panel and the control room.  It is important that the workers in this area are always alert and are safe.  

Shows what was talked about in which this crane takes the trash dumped from the trucks and puts it into the next part of the system.  It was said that this crane can hold a large amount of trash.  

This is a great picture of all of our class going out to the dumbing site.  We were able to smell those wonderful smells! (not) and able to watch some of the trucks come in to do their shipments 

This is the picture of the model that was in the presentation room in which shows how their facility works and what processes the trash goes through to ultimately reach the final goal and product of energy.  


You can't help to imagine what it would be like to work in one of these facilities and separate peoples waste and trash for a living however what we don't realize is they play a huge role and are the people who are helping our environment.  Facilities like this in which turn waste into energy are much needed.