As part of the FLL project, PVĢ pupils visit Latvia’s biggest landfill sites
As part of the FIRST LEGO League (FLL) project, members of the Preiļi State Gymnasium robotics club visited the Demene landfill site (located near Daugavpils) and the biggest landfill site in Latvia and also in the Baltics, SIA “Getliņi EKO”. The pupils had the opportunity to compare two landfill sites of different sizes.
In Demene we had the opportunity to see a mountain of waste up close and to see how waste sorting is done mainly by hand, whereas in Getliņi waste sorting is automated (the line was opened recently – in October 2015). We had the opportunity to watch the automated sorting of waste only in video material, because visitors are not allowed in there for safety reasons.
We did not notice the specific smell there either, but we did see how waste can be put to use for the national economy. In Getliņi, the gas produced in the process of waste decomposition is used, through cogeneration, to produce electricity (on average 30 GWh a year), and the heat released by the electric motors heats a large greenhouse (about 1 ha) in which tomatoes are grown. From now on, when we see Getliņi tomatoes in the shop, we will no longer wonder how tomatoes could grow on a mountain of waste.
This was a very informative event for all of us, in which we became convinced that the basis of this business is mathematics, chemistry, physics, biology and programming.
Linda Madelāne (2.B), member of the PVĢ FLL project team