Do you have a kid who loves garbage trucks? Do you want to educate your kids about recycling? Take them on a tour of the Sonoco Recycling center off New Bern Ave!
We recently toured the Sonoco recycling center with some toddler friends and their moms. It was a great educational experience for everyone – mommys included! The center is located at 111 S Rogers Ln, Raleigh, between Knightdale and Big WakeMed off New Bern Ave.
Our Sonoco recycling center tour
When we arrived we waited outside in the parking lot, which was actually a lot more exciting then it sounds. We got to watch all of the garbage trucks bringing in their hauls and hear all the loud truck noises. We thought our tour guide would be meeting us outside, but after a while we just went on inside the office. They pointed us upstairs (read: not stroller friendly) to the education room, which has a glass viewing area to see all the recycling action!
Trash or Recycling?
When our tour guide arrived, we started with a fun game of “trash or recycling?” The kids were each given an item of trash and were instructed to run to the bins and throw it in the correct one. Of course with a bunch of 2-4 year olds no one really got it right, but it was a great activity to open up the dialogue about what should actually be recycled. I honestly had never discussed it with my kids at all! Plus, I learned something new myself. Did you know you should take bottle caps off your bottles before recycling them? 🤷
After our game we sat down and were given a virtual tour of each of the different machines in the facility and what they do. They have video cameras at each station and were able to bring them up on the TV and talk about what we were seeing. The younger kids lost interest in this part after a while, but it was still very informative. I learned that just like in Toy Story 3, they DO use magnets to sort out the metal from everything else! Too bad none of the moms with me knew what I was talking about when I declared, “Just like in Toy Story!!” (Please tell me you saw Toy Story 3?!)
In this tour they didn’t actually take us down on the recycling floor, which I think was a good call given the kid’s ages. However, there was a wall of hard hats available so they may do that for older groups.
How can I schedule a tour?
Call the number below to schedule a tour and make your dump-truck-loving kid’s dreams come true! I didn’t actually schedule this tour, so I can’t speak for the ease in scheduling. However, I think it was well done, educational, and was a nice facility. It definitely had a strong garbage smell while we were there, but that’s just part of the educational experience! 🙂
