Originally Posted by dlssmith

I was raised on a farm; a real working farm, and we just didn't throw much away without using it twice or three times. We always had a stack of old lumber in one corner of the barn that we had to pull nails out of (kids job). Dad and grandpa would use that lumber all the time and never really bought much new lumber at all. We also used old nails that had been pulled out of that lumber. My grandpa always had a few old nails in his bib overalls just in case. If that man ever used a new nail, I didn't see it.

We didn't have regular garbage pick up either mainly because there wasn't all that much garbage. Our hogs and dogs ate table scraps - food was never, ever wasted. While our farm wasn't self sufficient, we did a lot of work all summer long putting up all manner of garden products, even though they were available at the store.

The amount of packaging in our garbage cans today really bothers me. Seems wasteful; on the other hand, if you're going to ship something 10,000 miles across sea and land, it needs to be protected. But overall, I think recycling is a mixed bag, some things are recycling no brainers like aluminum and glass and paper, other stuff, the plastics mainly, aren't as simply handled.

BTW, I do believe there will be mining of our landfills in the future. Lots of stuff there that should be recycled and it will be cost effective some day to get it.