Just
finished the first load of dishes and have the pots and pans soaking while the
dishes, glasses, and silverware drain—and dry a little. I never do dishes in the sink that I don’t
think of my mother. When she did dishes,
if it was on, she wouldn’t miss her radio program, “Beulah.” Other times, when I helped by drying and
putting away, we would play games. My
favorite was when we would guess the song the other one hummed, and then we
would often go off on a tangent and sing the song together. I learned a lot of songs of her generation
that way, and she learned some of mine.
I
think I got into the practice of recycling by watching her when I was a little
girl. I can still see her at the sink,
removing labels from the cans she had opened for supper. She’d already rinsed
them when she had made supper, adding that bit of water to whatever she was
making—and, yes, I picked up that habit, too. When the dishes were done, Mom would wash them
in the dishwater. After they were dry,
she would cut the bottom off the can, of course, that was way back when you could cut the bottom off the cans, slip
both lids inside the can, and then step on the can and flatten it. Many housewives were following the same
practice, for this was during the war, and metal was in demand for defense.
We
kids did our part for the war effort, too.
In those days, chewing gum was quite popular among the younger
crowd. And chewing gum was packaged a
little differently than it is today. Each
of the sticks were wrapped in a paper that had a metal coating. It took a little practice, but the skill of
removing the foil from the paper could be learned. We would gather these flimsy offerings into a
ball. Some of the older neighborhood
kids had balls that were almost the size of a baseball! That represented a lot of gum chewing!! I never did know how the kids recycled those
metal offerings for the war effort.
Sometimes
we would take the foil wrapping and chew it.
That was rather electrifying, especially right after a trip to the
dentist which included new metal fillings.
Recycling.
I
remember when milk was delivered to the door in glass bottles—with a cardboard
stopper. The milkman would hop off his
truck swinging his wire basket tote holding the milk for the household. Most everything came in quarts or pints. He’d take it to the door and leave it on the
porch or stoop, pick up the empties that were waiting there, and then return to
his truck.
When
I was in sixth grade, we had a contest in our class to see who could write the
best letter to one of the local milk companies asking if we could visit
them. It so happened, I won that
contest, and had my letter sent to them.
I remember that part of the tour we had was past the machines used to
wash and sterilize those bottles the milkmen had returned to the dairy.
We
kids did our part in the recycling effort by scouring the neighborhood for pop
bottles that were thrown away. Pop came
in a small size and a large size. If we
returned a small size bottle to the store, we’d get two cents per bottle. For five bottles we could get a bottle of pop. If we were really lucky and found a large
bottle, we would get five cents as a refund.
We had a NEHI carbonated beverage company just outside the commercial
part of town. We passed this building
every time we walked to town, and often stopped to watch through its big
windows the bottles being washed, dried, and then filled with cola.
Of
course, this was when the beverage companies were permitted to wash, sterilize,
and reuse the bottles. And before
plastic and aluminum took the place of glass.
I
also remember when the daily newspapers for the month were stacked and tied
with cord and placed at the curb for the trucks to come along and pick them up. I had almost forgotten about those big trucks.
I wonder if it had also been for the war
effort.
Today,
we are encouraged to recycle “to save our planet.” The only trouble is, that it is often difficult
to find someone willing to take the recycling, or are so selective that you
kind of wonder if it is worth it.
For
instance, in our area, the refuse companies will pick up recycling within the
city limits only, but not in any of the rural areas, even though it is the same
company that serves both. The one
pick-up station we visit is ten miles from our home, and also has its
limitations: number one and number two plastic beverage containers, NO LIDS,
aluminum cans, and glass bottles. The
area in Florida we lived in before we moved to Pennsylvania had a change in companies. The new refuse company that won the bid for
the whole county, accepts plastics up through number seven, aluminum included
things like clean disposable pie pans and even clean cooking foil, and glass is
glass. They even welcome Pizza
boxes. They picked up household refuse
twice a week, once a week they also picked up recycling (in a separate
container), and once every two weeks they would pick up lawn trash (weeds,
pruning, etc.). And if you had large
objects to get rid of, like a chair, couch, lawn timbers, once a month you
could call and make arrangements to have it picked up and hauled away. All included in the reasonable quarterly
fee. Now, if they had resources that
were taking the recycled materials, why can’t local refuse companies find enough
users to widen the articles they accept?
And maybe even be willing to pick them up, since the recyclers are probably
already their customers?
How
do you feel about recycling?
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