The Mobile Environmental Learning Center

MELC gets a facelift in 2006!

This EPA AWARD WINNING mobile center tours schools, festivals and more. This fun "field trip that comes to you" teaches about the waste we generate; how, why, and where to reduce, reuse, and recycle; what the items we recycle get made into for us to buy; important lessons on household hazardous waste; and a whole lot more.  Check out our photo tour and events schedule!

Land-of-Sky Regional Council, area solid waste officials, NC Cooperative Extension Service agents, and others have designed and built the Mobile Environmental Learning Center which addresses the need for source reduction education, increased participation in the existing recycling programs, and increased awareness of  household hazardous waste issues. The center has  a wide variety of hands-on and take home educational materials for both children and adults. The hands-on exhibits educate on the issues of waste reduction/reuse/recycle, county specific programs, and HHW.

The Mobile Environmental Learning Center is utilized by all four counties through a demographically equal sharing process. The scheduling is maintained by Land-of-Sky. This allows each county to reach an equal percentage of their population within both the "school year tour" and "summer tour." 

About the Mobile Environmental Learning Center
(click here for Educators Guide and Virtual tour)

This year marked the creation of a unique solid waste reduction project for both our region and the state that will have sustainability well into the new millennium. The Mobile Environmental Learning Center is a North Carolina certified classroom that will be towed to elementary schools, festivals, special events, and more. It can operate on power from a nearby building or it’s own generator. The center has a wide variety of hands-on and take home educational materials targeted primarily at elementary school age children and educators. However, there is a lot of great information for adults and the general public. The center is "simple enough for kids and interesting enough for adults". The outside is painted with a colorful 3-D mural showing recyclable materials transforming into usable products against a backdrop of mountains and sky. The inside contains interactive quiz boards on waste reduction, a mannequin dressed in recycled clothes, a television running subject related videos, handout materials for teachers, kids, and citizens, and displays on: litter’s environmental impact, composting, what’s recyclable, buying recycled, materials made from recycled products, household hazardous waste management, and more.

Upon entering the learning center, visitors will find the unit divided into 3 primary areas.  The first draws attention to our actions and the impact those actions have on the world around us.  The second area demonstrates how we should act with regard to waste reduction in order to minimize the negative effects our actions have on the environment.  The third area shows the result of those actions by displaying some of the products manufactured using recycled materials.  This area also contains the educational handouts and other support materials offered in the unit.

For more information, please contact: Holly Bullman or call her at 828-251-6622 ext. 132