A very good point, Gene. The curbside pickup and the stuff I take to the
local eco-supermarket are just the collecting for recycling. Then the stuff
is transported by polluting vehicles that use irreplaceable fossil fuels and
more energy is used and more pollution is created when the stuff is actually
recycled.
But I do recycle at home, too. Besides making compost out of all my kitchen
scraps and some of my yard debris, I collect newspaper and cardboard to use
for mulch under bark dust or compost or wood chips (this last delivered for
free by tree pruners who prune trees growing near utility lines. Friends
give me their autumn leaves to dispose of as mulch or as fodder for my
compost piles. I use some of my prunings and cardboard and paper as fuel in
my wood stove, and I use ashes from my wood stove for repelling slugs and
balancing pH in my garden. I recycled my lawn (yes, ALL of it!) by
smothering it with mulch-covered newspaper and cardboard and letting the
earthworms and other soil denizens turn it into rich humus. Dog droppings
are processed by helpful bacteria in a pair of septic system-like containers
and thus fertilize the soil around them for non-edible plants (dog feces can
spread disease to humans, so I keep it out of the food garden areas). This
weekend I plan to make fire-starter nuggets by mixing sawdust with candle
stubs discarded by my church. (Wax is extremely flammable so anyone who does
this should melt the wax in double boiler; I'm making a double boiler from a
discarded can.) Old clothes, sheets, etc. are recycled into rags, which we
use in lieu of paper towels. Scraps of fur or fabric are fashioned into new
articles. I have a nice travel container for index cards that I made out of
denim from an old pair of jeans.
Then there is the reusing of things for new purposes without processing them
into something else. Gallon jugs become watering cans for my garden.
Thinnings from a friend's bamboo plantings are turned into plant stakes or
into indoor and outdoor "clotheslines" and closet rods for solar or air
drying our laundry. All kinds of containers become pots for plants and
empty 48 oz. cans get holes punched in their remaining end with a can opener
and get sunk in the ground next to plants to form a low-tech irrigation
device (at the end of the season I do collect them for curbside recycling).
Plastic buckets discarded by restaurants become garbage cans, recycling
bins, kindling holders, hampers, washtubs for hand washing or presoaking
laundry, storage containers, planters for herbs and young fruit trees,
stools, totes for camping and picnic gear, and compost and mulch movers (I
am unable to use a wheel barrow). With the addition of store-bought lids
("Bucket Seats" or "Gamma Seals"), the buckets become food storage
containers, shipping containers for Christmas presents to far away
relatives, portable seating, portable potties, "garden sheds" for
weatherproof storage of garden tools (I'm of the no-dig school of gardening
so I don't use big stuff like shovels and my hoe is only about a foot long),
and a host of other things. Sometimes we even use the buckets as buckets.
We also collect gallon jars from restaurants for food and seed storage. I
also store dry dog food, biscuits, beans, grains, pasta, crackers, etc. in
old Civil Defense drinking water canisters, an unplugged freezer the
previous house owner left in our garage, and tins that formerly held snack
foods.
So you see, we not only collect things to be taken away to be recycled; we
also do on-site recycling of some of our own "garbage" and some types of
"garbage" produced by others we reuse or recycle by low-tech processes. The
nice thing about our home-style recycling is that it usually doesn't involve
wheels or if it does it is collected when one was already going to the place
where the materials are waiting for disposal.
Carol (and Brodie)
-----Original Message-----
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
[mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]On Behalf Of Gene GeRue
Sent: Tuesday, November 30, 1999 9:38 AM
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: RE: [ecopath] energy and sustainability
<snip> We should start calling this what it is: collecting for recycling. We
all
feel good about "recycling" when in fact it is likely that few of us
actually recycle, we just collect and hope that the materials are in fact
recycled. My best is that I recycle my food--into me, out of me into a
bucket, to a composting container, to feed fruit trees, and back to feeding
me. A closed loop, the best way to recycle, but I know of no other that we
individuals have control over. And how many do even this? <snip>
Gene GeRue, author,
How To Find Your Ideal Country Home
