Good overview of recycling process

Last night Renee and I gave a talk on household waste reduction to a local preschool, and it was so much fun. The parents were really into it and asked lots of great questions. One parent wondered if you could take a class of kids to tour a Materials Recycling Facility (MRF, pronounced 'merf'). MRF's are nasty places, and most do not allow tours. Big, noisy machines, lots of broken glass, and pretty stinky. Renee and I took a tour through the Master Recycler program and it is pretty interesting. Here's a really good video that gives a great overview of what happens to your recyclables after they leave the curb (click 'Explore the Cycle' after the 45 second intro):

(UPDATE: Okay, so I had to delete that video because it would play everytime you load EnviroMom. Very annoying. It's still a good video, just go see it at their site if you're interested.)

It's not a video aimed at kids, but the graphics are good and you could pause it and explain what's happening in your own words. The company that produced this video is RecycleBank, and they provide incentives for recycling. I can't decide if I really like this idea or not. You get one of their rollcarts, and a little memory chip records how many pounds of recyclables you put out each week. You get points for pounds, and then you can redeeem those points at businesses like Target, Petco and Rite-Aid. On the one hand, if it encourages more people to recycle responsibly it's good. On the other hand, I would be concerned that a program like this would divert efforts from the more important acts of reducing and reusing. I'm not even sure the city of Portland or other cities would accept an 'alternative' rollcart, even though it does look identical to the ones we use. I'd be curious to hear from people who've tried it.

PS: Tomorrow is America Recycles Day!