December 17, 2024
By MEALAND RAGLAND-HUDGINS
Rutherford County Schools
For several years, residents and community leaders have expressed concern about the future of Middle Point Landfill in northern Rutherford County.
The facility accepts approximately 3,700 tons of waste each day, but not all of it comes from the people that call the county home. That’s just one of the things middle school students at Thurman Francis Arts Academy learned about the facility over the last few months.
“I knew recycling was a big deal and we don’t want a lot of trash. I didn’t know it was a big problem locally, how others send their trash here,” eighth-grader Zoe Zurawski said. “It’s not really (Rutherford County) causing the landfill to fill up.”
According to Middle Point’s website, waste primarily comes from homes and businesses in Rutherford and Davidson counties, with “significantly smaller quantities” coming from other Midstate counties.
With the landfill expected to reach capacity in the next five years, teachers Brandi Breneman and Emily Hartley worked with students to raise awareness and come up with solutions. Hartley is the school’s art teacher, while Breneman teaches STEM – the disciplines of science, technology, engineering and math.
The collaboration, Breneman said, will “enhance our students’ work and connect their learning to real-world issues.”
That included working with industry mentors such as Todd Smith from WasteAway, which transforms waste into green technology.
“I was impressed with the questions they asked and how much some of them knew,” Smith said. “You can tell they’ve taken this seriously.”
Brayden Collins, a sixth-grade student at TFAA, said one of his biggest concerns is the impact the landfill has on water quality.
“Landfills produce leachate when it rains. It ends up in the river and that’s our drinking water,” he said.
Students used recyclables to develop art displays and to educate others about the need for recycling, Hartley said.
Industry mentors, along with other TFAA teachers, visited with the students in November to help them fine-tune their presentations ahead of the school’s STEAM (STEM and arts) Night.
Armed with deeper knowledge of the landfill and the challenges the county faces, Zurawski has already challenged others to do their part.
“I told my parents we should start recycling,” she said. “We want the world to be a better place.”