Workshops Help Children Learn Value of Recycling

The Centre County Recycling and Refuse Authority is taking another stride in bringing the county’s recycling and composting efforts to a much younger audience.

The authority hosted free children’s composting and recycling workshops ― geared toward kids from kindergarten through grade five ― in the Children’s Garden at the Penn State’s Arboretum on July 13. If you missed the first one, don’t worry; similar workshops are being held throughout the summer.

“This year we just decided (children’s workshops) would be a good addition because organics composting is becoming more prominent in the region,” says Mimi Cooper, who taught the composting workshop.

Cooper taught her workshop called “Garbage-Eating Wonder Worms” to a group of about ten campers from the summer camp at Hort Woods, where she introduced them to the concept of vermicomposting ― a practice that uses worms to break down food scraps.

Cooper even brought along a tub of worms and magnifying glasses to the Arboretum providing campers with a hands-on and memorable experience.

Meanwhile, Amy Schirf, the education coordinator at the CCRRA, showed a second group of ten Hort Wood’s campers what items are recyclable and what these recycled items are used for in her workshop called “The Three R’s: Reduce, Reuse, Recycle.”

“You could walk into a Walmart and buy a pair of shoes made from plastic bottles that you could have helped recycle,” Schirf said to the first group of children while passing around a pair of shoes made out of recycled plastics.

Schirf said the CCRRA has had educational programs in place for children for some time but that the authority is just now starting to reach out to new places.

Earlier this summer, the authority taught workshops at Benner Township’s summer camp. In August the authority will teach workshops for the campers at the Millbrook Marsh Nature Center.

The CCRRA also has another two days of the free and public recycling and composting workshops at the Children’s Garden scheduled for August 3 and August 10 from 10:30 a.m. until 11:00 a.m. and from 11:15 a.m. until 11:45 a.m.

Schirf said camps, schools or others interested in having the CCRRA provide a workshop for children should contact the authority and ask to speak with either her or Cooper.