When schools participate in Target Recycling at School they qualify for free environmental education for all ages through the Dalton-Whitfield Solid Waste Authority.  Local groups like the Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts, 4-H, and Homeschool Groups are also able to enjoy the free service.  Workshops are also available for adults when they're hosted by a civic group, garden club, or other business organization. Schools looking for STEAM or STEM certification can partner with the Recycling Center.

Topics range from recycling, waste management, water pollution and conservation, animal habitats, and even trees.  Tours, workshops, and class visits are facilitated by DWSWA staff members.  (Schedule tours, school visits, and adult workshops online with the Education Program Request Form.)  Participants typically also receive a pen, pencil, coloring book or other recycled promotional item to remember the visit.

The main contact person for the program is the Recycling and Education Program Coordinator, Amy Hartline.  She is a licensed Georgia educator with an ESOL accreditation. She holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Early Childhood Education. She has spent over 1,000 hours as a student teacher in Dalton City Schools, Whitfield County Schools, and Murray County Schools. She is also a member of the Georgia Recycling Coalition. Programs provided include lessons from award winning environmental education curriculum including Project WET (Water Education for Teachers), Project WILD (Wildlife Learning In Design), and Project Learning Tree (PLT). 

Facility Tours:

Follow the garbage truck to the landfill and find out what happens to all the stuff that gets thrown away in Whitfield County.  Then, follow the recycling truck to the recycling center to learn why recycling makes a difference for our community and state.  The tour is appropriate for 1st grade and up, and can be adapted for children and adults. 

Schedule your tour online with our Education Program Request Form.

• Recycling Ben’s New Friends Tour:  1 Hour

Tour at the DWSWA facility highlighting the landfill and recycling center.  An introduction to waste management in our community.

• Limit of 60 visitors, 2 groups of 30, to finish in 1 hour.

• Can do 2 tours on the same day to accommodate up to 120 visitors.

• Recycling Ben’s Buddies Tour:  1.5-Hours

Tour Take the New Friends Tour listed above to the next level by adding an educational session like: 

• Hey, That's Not Trash (What is Recycling) | GA Standard: SKP1

• Garbage Pizza (Composition of Waste) | GA Standard: S2E3

• Vulture Festival (Animal Adaptations, Food Web) | GA Standard: S5E1, S2E3, S3L2, S4L1

• Water Journey (Water Cycle, Pollution, Enviroscape) | GA Standard: S5E1, S2E3, S3L2, S4E3

• How Many Bears Live in This Forest (Habitats, Carrying Capacity) | GA Standard: S1L1, S4L1, S2L3, S3L2

• We All Need Trees (Tree Products, Paper Recycling) | GA Standard: S3L2, S6E6, S2E3

• Limit of 130 visitors, 3 evenly split groups, to finish in 1.5 hours.

• Can do 2 tours on the same day to accommodate up to 260 visitors.

• Recycling Ben’s Sidekick Training: 4-Hours  

Students will train to become Recycling Ben’s Sidekicks while making Garbage Pizza, a model of a Landfill, taking a tour of the landfill and recycling center, participating in a relay race, meeting mascot Recycling Ben, and completing a Reuse It Challenge. 

• Recommended for 3rd graders.

• Limit of 30 visitors (1 group or classroom at a time).

• Limited to 1 group per day.

• Suggested hours are 9:00 am to 1:00 pm.

• Includes time to eat lunch.

• Visitors should bring their own lunch from school / home.

• Learning Standards and Agenda available upon request.

During the 2012 – 2013 school year we introduced Recycling Ben’s Sidekick Training.  This program takes place at the Recycling Center’s education and training room.  It's designed for third graders, and cannot be done off-site. 

We’ll Visit Your School: 

Sometimes it’s more convenient for our team to go to your school and present to an assembly or a particular classroom.  Here’s a selection of activities we can take to you.  Most are adaptable to all grade levels and group sizes.  Correlations to learning standards are available upon request.  

Schedule a visit to your school using our Education Program Request Form.

• Hey, That's Not Trash:  Perfect introductory class about recycling for Pre-K and Kinder.  Students enjoy a reading of the children's book, "Hey, That's Not Trash", play a sorting game to identify items that can go in a recycling bin, and make a recycled music shaker from their own water bottle. GA Standard: SKP1

• We All Need Trees:  Can you name 10 things that are made from trees?  Was one of them paper?  Learn how paper is made from trees, and how recycling paper conserves natural resources.  Find out what you can recycle at school and what your paper is recycled into. GA Standard: S3L2, S6E6, S2L3

• Guests for Career Day: DWSWA staff is available to visit your school for Career Day activities.  We’re prepared to talk about working at a recycling center or in the waste management industry in general.  GA Standard: S1L1, S4L1, S2E3, S3L2

• Trash to Toys: Make your own toy using reused materials and learn about reducing, recycling, and reusing your waste. Find out how our “trash” can become treasure with some imagination! GA Standard: S2E3, S3L2

• Garbage Pizza: Make a huge garbage pizza to display in your classroom to show the composition of our waste stream.  Learn about reducing, recycling, and reusing your waste.  Find ways to improve recycling at your school. GA Standard: S2E3

• How Many Bears Can Live in this Forest?:  Learn about the components of a habitat, carrying capacity, human impact on the environment, and a healthy bear diet as we become black bears.  For younger students we’ll also read the book ‘Bear Snores On’. GA Standard: S1L1, S4L1, S2L3, S3L2

• Every Drop Counts: How much water on the planet is potable?  And what types of pollutants affect the water supply?  Learn about water conservation through a demonstration on Enviroscape’s model of the Watershed. GA Standard: S5E1, S5L4, S2E3, S3L2, S4E3

• Teacher Time Out: Need 30 minutes? Schedule a Teacher Time Out where our Recycling Education Coordinator comes in and takes over for a Read-Aloud on nature, recycling, or composting depending on what works best for your classroom.

• Feeding the Compost: Create your own Chewy the Compost Monster and feed him compost. We’ll learn what can be fed into our compost and what needs to stay out. GA Standard: SKP1, S2E3

• Fred the Fish: Follow Fred the Fish on a journey through the river and see what happens when he encounters pollution! GA Standard: S2E3

• Vulture Festival: A simplified Vulture Festival from our field trips. Watch a classmate transform into a vulture and then break into various stations to learn about vulture adaptations and why they are important for our ecosystem. GA Standard: S5E1, S2L3, S3L2, S4L1

• Energy Pipeline: Your class will be divided into groups (autotrophs, herbivores, and carnivores) to simulate organic production and energy loss for major trophic levels in an ecosystem. This activity will let them experience the energy pipeline visually and tactically. GA Standard: S7L4 B.

• Plastics Density Sort: Students will observe a large density column being made and discuss the various properties of different plastics. Then they will be given a mystery piece of plastic and will need to determine its’ number code by comparing its’ density to a variety of liquids. Due to the nature of this activity it must be completed in a lab setting. . GA Standard: S8P1 C.

Can’t find an activity that fits what you’re studying? More lesson are available from Project WET, Project WILD, Growing up WILD, Project Learning Tree, and Waste in Place.  Call us at 706-278-5001 to discuss or e-mail Amy Hartline: ahartline@dwswa.org.

Workshops for Adults

Civic groups, clubs, and business organizations can also participate in educational environmentally friendly workshops.  Our staff is available to visit your group during your regular meeting times to give informative presentations or give hands on workshops on several topics.  Tours of the recycling center and landfill are also open to adults.  Here are some of the topics available: 

• What to Recycle

• Reuse It! How-To Upcycle old T-shirts

• Introduction to Composting at Home

• Arts Integration and Reuse for Children

• Overview of DWSWA Services and Programs

• Monarch Butterflies and Butterfly Gardens

• Greening the Workplace, Tips and How-To

Schedule your workshop or tour online using the Education Program Request Form.  Call 706-278-5001 or email: ahartline@dwswa.org if you have any questions.