The Garbage Museum - Children's Museum in Connecticut
The Garbage Museum
Want to walk through a giant compost pile? Stand beneath an enormous dinosaur made out of trash? View mounds of recyclables being dumped, sorted and sent off to be used somewhere else?
No? Are you sure? It is really interesting and I assure you, your child will love it! The giant compost pile isn’t real compost, but imagine shrinking down to the size of a worm and walking through it, understanding the fascinating process and seeing all of the many components at work.
The award winning Garbage Museum in Stratford, Connecticut, was developed and maintained by the Connecticut Resources Recovery Authority and has much to offer their young and old visitors alike. The many interactive exhibits explore the challenges of waste management and offers some solutions in which children and their parents can participate.
When you first enter the Garbage Museum, you can’t help but notice Trash-O-Saurus, a life sized dinosaur made out of a ton (literally) of trash. You will learn that this is about how much the average person disposes of in a year . Although he is composed of garbage, Trash-O-Saurus is really quite clean, and you can get up close, and play a scavenger hunt game provided by the museum, to find the odd and interesting pieces of trash used to make up his body.
For some visitors, the most interesting (and disgusting) part of the Garbage Museum experience is heading up high to the enclosed skywalk, which allows you multiple views of the recycling plant. This is a fully functional and working recycling plant, and visitors can watch the trucks back in and dump load after load of recyclables into the warehouse directly beneath their feet. Follow the trash through the recycling process, which utilizes tremendous machines to sort and pack the recyclables for shipment to be remade into something new.
The Garbage Museum offers scouting programs, class tours and environmental educational kits for teachers and group leaders to borrow. The museum sponsors several special events each year, including their popular Family Day and contests such as Build a Trash Sculpture .
The Garbage Museum is free and open to the public. Check their website for special events and hours of operation.
Resources
- CRRA - Connecticut Resources Recovery Authority
Connecticut Resources Recovery Authority manages the municipal solid waste and recyclables for the State of Connecticut and sponsors the Garbage Museum.
