I have never thought much of the recycling craze. Cities that invest millions, to hand out different colored plastic totes where you, if you are a good citizen and all, will deposit your aluminum cans, your glass bottles, your plastics etc...
Smarter folk have spent a bit of time evaluating how much money it COSTS us to save a little money in recycling. Money that could in my opinion be better spent, say in protecting our borders. Even with that said, we do save our aluminum cans. My husband has asked that I do this, so I do it for him pure and simple because every day he does many things for me. He then takes them to the can place and gets a little money for them.
But as much as I hate contrived recycling, I am all about the recycling of materials here on our farm. This is a fine example of which I speak. Another farrowing house for our Red Wattle Sows. Made entirely with recycled wood left over from numerous projects, it is shaping up nicely.
But it took my husband, hired help Aaron and volunteer helper Jon a large amount of time. So to say it was Free would be incorrect. Time does cost money. Some of the wood came from our old deck, some from other fix-it jobs around he farm. The wood averages 10 years old with some of the older pieces being 20-30 years old and of unknown origin.
I am always proud of the hard work my husband does but when I see him create a beautiful, warm sturdy home for future piglets out of recycled material I am proudest of all.
I am in two minds about recycling too, but all that plastic packaging is mainly to blame, I think. Why wrap cucumbers?
ReplyDeletegreat job with the pen!
ReplyDeleteAs usual, I love your perspective. :) I've thought that recycling is newfangled only because trash is. In an agrarian lifestyle, nothing is wasted, it is fed to something or reused for something else. The only things Dan and I have to throw away or put in the recycling bins are things we bought. If we could quit buying, we could quit throwing away.
ReplyDeleteVERY stout looking crate. I envy your husband's carpentry skills. I always have grand ideas, but I think the last thing I made looks like something from a third-world ghetto.
ReplyDeleteI've often wondered how much more it costs (monetarily speaking) to recycle in some places, taxpayer funded, of course. I bet most of it is just for "feel good" purposes. Just like you & other mentioned, if we just got into the habit of changing our purchasing habits and force the mfg's to "listen" to us (ie buy/not buy a certain product), there would be a lot less recycling that would have to be done in the first place. Glass jars drive me nuts the most. Why don't they make jars in standard canning sizes so they can be re-used for home canning?!
Well done Keith! The house of Piglet is nice and sturdy and someday will be recycled into something else I am sure.
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately an awful lot of nonsense goes-on in the name of 're-cycling'. Our only recyclable stuff is paper or cardboard, and that goes on the fire. If you buy correctly, you have no rubbish!
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