Posted by
Rural Anorak on Tuesday, July 01, 2008 9:18:41 AM
Being a country boy, I have seen that rural folks are more likely to recycle that city folks and have been doing so for a far longer time. In fact, we were doing it long before someone in the city called it recycling. How so? Well look at how rural folks live. We live very close to the land, we are very conscious of what we do and do not have. And in so realising, we make the best of what materials we have access to. A farmer builds a shed for equipment, livestock whatever; after several years, the shed ceases to be useful. The farmer dismantles the shed and saves the materials of the shed for another project. You didn't throw away anything that could be used at a later date. An argument could be made that we are packrats, and to some extent this is true. We also recognize that events happen at inopportune times and you have to make do with what you have.
Using myself and my home as an example of rural recycling. I have hardwood floors that came from the house my great grandparents lived in and those same floor boards actually came from yet another house. I live in a thirty year old house with 130 year old flooring. My television is sitting on a cabinet. Ok, the cabinet was the frame to an old console televsion. My father gutted the TV decades ago, but kept the cabinet. We use is as a small book/display case and the stand for the current television.
This is the type of recycling that rural folks have been doing for centuries. It is not a feel good type of recycling, it is a practical use of material to its best advantage.
What I have noticed, however, is that as more people move out here from the city, there are more disposable goods being used. Instead of reusing material until it cannnot be used, items are being replaced continually with the newest and flashiest.