Quick look: Students from Valadez Middle School visited the Frank R. Bowerman Landfill in Irvine through Project Zero Waste, a partnership between OCDE’s Inside the Outdoors program and OC Waste & Recycling that connects classroom learning to real-world sustainability practices.
Students from Valadez Middle School recently stepped beyond the classroom and into one of Orange County’s largest waste management facilities to learn firsthand how trash, recycling and composting systems operate.
The field trip to the Frank R. Bowerman Landfill in Irvine was part of Project Zero Waste, a partnership between the Orange County Department of Education’s Inside the Outdoors program and OC Waste & Recycling that provides students with hands-on learning experiences focused on sustainability and waste reduction.
Project Zero Waste offers free curriculum materials for transitional kindergarten through fifth grade classrooms, with additional grade levels currently in development. The program encourages students to explore sustainability concepts through inquiry-based learning and real-world applications.
During the visit, students rotated through educational stations covering topics such as composting, methane monitoring and landfill engineering before touring the active landfill site.
“Students have been learning a lot about climate change, greenhouse effects, greenhouse gases, so this is a wonderful opportunity to take students out in the field and see what the community is doing to mitigate the release of greenhouse gases,” said Sabrina Bui, a science teacher at Valadez Middle School in the Placentia-Yorba Linda Unified School District.
According to OC Waste & Recycling, the field trip is offered at no cost to participating schools and includes transportation and substitute teacher support.
Mark Atkinson, educational support manager with OCDE’s Inside the Outdoors program, said the experience helps students better understand the environmental impact of everyday waste.
“This really is their trash, and what are we doing with it here, and how are we minimizing the impact of the trash on the environment?” Atkinson said. “It is something that they’re really able to see and connect with.”
For more information about Project Zero Waste, visit OCDE’s webpage.