When is the last time you took your child to the dump? Actually, when was the last time you went to the dump? For most of us, the answers to both of these questions would be a long time ago or maybe even never.

Actually, there are some really good reasons to go to the dump. Obviously, the first one is to get rid of your trash but there are others. Just think of what your child could learn on a trip there.

Your child would be amazed at the number of people who bring their trash to the dump. You need to explain to her why people do this. She needs to hear about how people need to come to the dump when they have more trash than the trash man can take. Some come because they think they can save money. Some come because they believe strongly on separating their trash to be recycled.

This last reason for recycling is one of the main reasons you should bring her here. You want her to see how important it is to separate trash so it can be recycled. Let her see you put your newspapers in the right place. Talk about what happens to newspapers when they are recycled. Explain that by recycling just your daily newspaper you will save more than your own body weight in paper within a year. You can tell her that the average family uses six trees worth of paper each year. If you buy products made from recycled paper, you save 17 trees each year.

You want her to see that newspapers are separate from cardboard. You want her to see that bottles and glass go in another bin. Separating the plastic from other kinds of waste also is important. Most importantly, you want her to begin to learn about why we save trash that otherwise would be thrown away. You want her to see that recycling benefits our community and the environment.

The benefits of recycling don’t immediately show when you go to the dump, especially for a young child. You need to help her see them by talking about them.

Talk with her about the waste that is sent to landfills and incinerators. Talk about how much trash you and your family alone throw away. It is estimated that most Americans contribute over 4 pounds of trash to a landfill each day. That is a tough concept for a young child to imagine but maybe she can think about how much trash comes from your own neighborhood. Then imagine the trash for the whole city.

Think about where does that trash go? Even if the trash is burned, that has a huge impact on the quality of the air we breathe. At the least the garbage is smashed and buried but then it is turned into a landmass that is of concern to impact land, air and water quality. Think about how long it takes plastic to disintegrate. It is a problem today to figure out where to put all the landfills. Some landfills are so large they can be seen from space.

But don’t get too complicated if she is a young recipient of all this information. Certainly you want her to understand that if we recycle waste, it saves us using new timber, water and minerals. This helps us save the environment for future generations.

We try to bring young people into the discussion of recycling and saving the environment with the symbol you find on many items that can be recycled. The phrase “Reduce, Reuse, Recycle” is taught to children all over the world in the hope of creating a clean environment. We all know that recycling is a simple way in which every person can contribute to making a better world.

Cynthia Martin is the founder of the First Teacher program and director of Parenting Matters Foundation, which publishes newsletters for parents, caregivers and grandparents. Reach Martin at pmf@olypen.com or at 681-2250.