Recycling lessons not wasted on kids
Worms, wood pulp, garbage and children all happily converged Saturday as regional waste workers doled out lessons on conservation at the Mobius Kids Museum to mark America Recycles Day.
Parents and kids picked up simple tips to make recycling easier and, in some cases, more fun.
“Because they, like, wiggle,” was the response of 4-year-old Max Bailey when asked why he enjoyed the “worm composting” exhibit.
From a more functional perspective, “it’s a way to get rid of that vegetable matter off your dinner plate,” said Suzanne Tresko of the Spokane Regional Solid Waste System.
Below her was a plastic storage bin filled with shredded office paper, decaying food, newly created soil and hundreds of worms that Max and other children had a chance to see up close.
Worm composting is easier and takes up less space than outdoor compost bins, and the soil is great for houseplants, Tresko said.
In three weeks, her writhing critters had turned discarded food and paper into about half-gallon of soil. The “red wiggler” worms can digest their weight in organic matter every day.
“(Children) can read a book about recycling, but once they get in there and feel the dirt …” said Phyliss Boporay.
Her daughter Joslyn, 9, said, “It’s fun and you learn to recycle more.”
Joslyn’s thinking on solid waste was straightforward: If people throw everything away indefinitely, “the world will just be not a nice place.”
Spokane County residents and businesses send about 1,000 tons of waste to the Waste-to-Energy Plant every day, which amounts to between 4 and 5 pounds per person. About 400 tons are recycled daily.
Efforts to increase recycling and promote recyclable products were the impetus behind America Recycles Day, which started under another name in Texas in 1997 and is now promoted nationwide.
In Spokane, the children’s museum brought in about 250 visitors for the recycling demonstration and other interactive scientific and cultural displays.
Other hands-on demonstrations for children included paper making and using a magnet to find which metals can be recycled.
Mobius Kids picks up where the Children’s Museum on Post Street left off when it closed two years ago. A local nonprofit group opened the museum in River Park Square on Labor Day and has plans to build a science and technology museum in Riverfront Park in 2007.
Staff members said Friday was the museum’s biggest day so far, drawing about 530 visitors.