By Michael Smith (Veshengro)
In 1970 recycling was in its infancy but definitely cool and the hip thing to do. Hippies, in fact, were the leading lights in the alternative scene, from which the green movement would grow.
Many magazines began then that were dealing with off grid, alternative lifestyle, recycling, upcycling (even though the term had not be coined then), and back to the land. Many of their writers offered some great recycling and reuse tips, many still relevant today.
Some authors would describe these tips as “little ideas that anyone can start using right now to cut day to day living expenses and – over period of a year – add a number of dollars (a penny saved is a penny earned) to the family kitty.”
And already then they would say that “these ideas are ecologically sound because each one makes better, extra or extended use of an item from our insane ‘throw-away’ system.”
One can but wonder as to what those writers and teachers would have to say about the state of affairs today where many people have absolutely no idea as to reuse and repurposing.
Already then those writers would suggest to reuse the backs of cereal cartons, Christmas and other greeting cards, and junk mail by cutting them up for note paper and for index cards. They then suggested to use the clean pieces for notes in a holder in the kitchen to be used for shopping lists, notes to the milkman, etc. and also index cards on which to write recipes.
I do this to this very day and all my index cards are hand cut – with a guillotine – from such card stock as are my business cards. The latter get the details put on to them by means of a rubber stamp.
Use it again and again was the other advice back then, especially for glass containers.
Wash and save glass containers from mayonnaise and other products for food storage and keeping fruit juice in the refrigerator. Tall mayonnaise jars will protect sugar, salt, flour and cereals better than their original paper or cardboard containers, and squatty jars are perfect for storing little leftovers in the refrigerator.
Today, instead of thinking this way, people will spend around about $20 for a set of three recycled glass storage jar while they are throwing their glass jars from products and produce into the recycling bin – after cleaning them up – without even thinking as to whether they may have a use for those jars.
Bottles, in those days, were all still, predominately made of glass and, at least in Britain, with the exception of wine, spirits and vinegar bottles and those from ketchup, went back to the stores. Lemonade, Coca Cola, and beer bottles all had a deposit on them and us kids went about the countryside picking up bottles that lazy people had thrown away. We made out pocket money that way.
Magazines had projects for converting wine bottles, however, into decorative vases by wrapping multicolored string around them – on a bit of glue – and bottle cutting projects also were legion, to turn bottles into drinking glasses, votive candles, small bowls, ashtrays, etc.
Tin cans
Use the plastic tops of coffee cans as coasters under glasses and also to keep furniture feet from digging into your rug. The coffee cans with holes punched in their bottoms – and – perhaps decorated with aluminum foil – make adequate temporary flower pots.
Better still, turn tin coffee cans, if you still can get them, into billy cans for camping and also as little buckets. All you need to reuse for handles is some wire from those wire hangers from the dry cleaners.
Tin cans from produce and soup: Wash and remove label (or use those that have labels directly printed onto the tin) and reuse as pencil bins on the desk, in the kitchen, and anywhere else where you may need to have such a bin to hold pencils, pens, scissors, etc.
Another advice that was given out in such magazines with regards to saving on plants and such was to use the seeds of foods you have eaten, such as apples, oranges, grapefruit, green pepper and avocado, to grow new plants. Nearly everyone had an avocado plant in the kitchen window in the 1970s and some of them grew quite tall. I doubt that any avocados came from them but they were a useful, I guess, plant around the house.
Not just were the magazines giving the advice to save all reusable wrapping paper and string; it was something that was simply done still then in most households. Heavy wrapping paper, we were told, makes an excellent, dust-proof backing for framed pictures, and nothing has changed in that regard.
As far as string is concerned, if you get cord and string that is in any way, shape or form reusable in the end keep it and do not throw it. If you garden then only for tying up plants and to tie together the bean teepees those bits are invaluable and who can say no to FREE.
In those days the advice also was given to restitch bed sheets to give them a second life. This, however, also was still very common in many a home ands the same with regards to converting batch towels which are worn into hand towels and later into rags.
Today, obviously, people will have to be told this in the same way as we have not printed on confectionery tins slogans such as “Reuse Me!” and complete instructions as to how to use the tin, whether tin or plastic, and how to recycle it. People do not seem to be able to think for themselves on this level anymore. I must say that I really hate to ask as to what has happened to us.
Bed sheets, which usually wear out in the middle, can be cut down the center and the two outside edges, which get very little wear, can then be sewn together to make a new center. It takes a little time and work to hem the new outer edges (which were formerly in the middle), but it saves the price of a new sheet. Pillow slips can be made from the good sections of the worn sheet and finally, of course, they go into the rag bag.
Bath towels, which also wear most in the middle, can be cut in half to make hand towels. The good pieces are later made into face cloths and dish rags and, finally, they too can be used for cleaning and shoe polishing.
While some of the things from those years the reuse of which was being advocated are no longer the ideas are still the same and as valid as then. We but need to translate them to today's things.
The problem is that we have not gotten very far since those early days of recycling advice and then already it was known that we were on the way to destroy the Planet and ourselves by the way we were behaving. Not much has changed. In fact we still have not learned the lessons that were taught then.
Personally I must say that I could do with rather a large barn in which to store all the bits that I would like to keep for reuse but, in all honesty, I try to reuse and upcycle as much as possible and try to have very little in the trash can.
© 2011
