by Allison Elliot

Humans have been recycling long before the word was invented. Indeed it was common practice throughout history. In pre-industrial times, bronze scraps and other metals were collected in Europe and melted down for perpetual re-use. At one time flour sacks were turned into shirts and dresses, then became dishrags. In Britain dust and ash from wood and coal fires were used as a base material in brick making. The main driver for these types of recycling was that it was easier and less expensive to get recycled materials than to acquire virgin material. Besides, it would just pile up and become trash because there was a lack of public waste removal in the ever growing populated areas.

Today, in rural areas, folks are very familiar with the need and the ways of recycling. Ranchers and farmers have always been experts at keeping old “parts” vehicles around in order to repair a truck or tractor.  They are also used to welding and customizing a machine for their particular need. This always saved them money and made use of what they already had on hand.

In recent history, resource shortages caused by the world wars made recycling and reusing a necessity. Massive government promotion campaigns were carried out in World War II in every country involved in the war, urging citizens to donate metals and conserve fiber, as a means of being patriotic.

The next big investment in recycling occurred in the 1970’s due to rising energy costs. You may remember in 1987, the Mobro 4000 barge hauled garbage from New York to North Carolina, where it was denied permission to land and unload. It was then sent to Belize, where it was denied as well. The barge finally returned to New York and the garbage was incinerated. The incident led to heated discussion in the media about waste disposal and recycling. The incident is often referred to as igniting recycling efforts of the 1990’s.

One event that pushed recycling efforts forward occurred in 1989 when one city banned the use of polystyrene packaging, the type that was used for keeping McDonald’s hamburgers warm. This ban led to the first major plastics recycling effort. Within ten years there were some 1,677 companies in the USA alone involved in the post-consumer plastics recycling business.

One can now find companies that use recycled materials in as varied ways as homes made out of compressed bales of aluminum cans, glittering countertops made of glass, decking made from plastic bags and tires ground into new road surfaces.

Recycling is all that has ever really been happening on the planet. Water, air, the mineral and nutrient cycles that bring us our food and the materials from which we build our lives are all part of our history. We can see that over the course of civilization humans have responded to our ever-changing situations by being creative. No doubt recycling will continue to play a part in the everyday business of living. If not, it will only be wasted as trash.

These days one of the newest varieties of trash are broken and left over electronic devices. From televisions, fax machines and stereos, to computers, printers and scanners, these things are piling up in our closets and basements. True to our human creativity, businesses, both non-profit and for profit, have sprung up to deal with this special type of trash.

When electronic items are treated like trash they are very toxic because they contain a long list of heavy metals and chemicals that can seep into our ground water and air. But when they are treated as valuable resources and are properly recycled they become an important source of those same metals and chemicals.

The Friends of Delta County Recycling, along with our many supporters, held an Electronic Waste Recycling Event in April 2008. We would like to hold this event every other year. Call the  recycling information line at 399-2940, or go to our website wwww.deltacountyrecycling.org to stay up-to-date on recycling news.  

RECYCLING FACT: Recycling aluminum uses only 5% of the energy required by virgin production; recycled glass, paper and metals have less dramatic but very significant energy savings when a recycled material is used (”The price of virtue”, The Economist, June 6, 2007).