Recycling not such a new idea

THE younger generation might be forgiven for believing that recycling is a new concept here. In fact, it’s quite old.

Anyone who grew up in mid-20th century Ireland will remember selling empty jam jars to their local shops; when messages were neatly wrapped in brown paper which was again reused, when clothes were handed down and when women seemed to spend much of their time darning, knitting, etc.

People knew how to stretch things, in every sense. Maybe it was because of wartime rationing and post-war frugality, but they didn’t waste anything: if something could be reused, that’s what would happen. Nowadays, as much as a third of all food purchased is wasted, according to statistics. And that in a time of austerity! Travellers were into recycling before the settled community and we remember them regularly going around the country collecting scrap metals.

People were also conscious about saving electricity and turned off lights when such were deemed unnecessary. But, demand for fossil-fuelled power grew with the coming of fridges, TVs and a host of other electrical gadgets.

With growing consumerism came packaging of all shapes and sizes and the resultant need for disposal, usually to dumps. And, with Christmas almost here, we’re going to see a huge increase in packaging.

But, at least recycling is now organised and it’s amazing what can be recycled, from glass to plastic to metals to paper to batteries.

Matt Murphy, of Sherkin Island Marine Station, was an environmentalist before the term was coined and he writes about getting back to basics in the recent issue of his always interesting publication, Sherkin Comment.

‘’Often recycling is just a case of being organised and having a place to put the materials until they can go for recycling,’’ he emphasises.

Bring banks are all over the place. Most people are now into waste separation and have different containers for plastic, bulbs and other recyclables which makes it very easy.

Matt recalls what he describes as a major recycling programme that began around the 1950’s. At the time, Henry Ford assembled cars at the Marina, in Cork, and the parts came in waterproof, plywood boxes.

When empty, the boxes were sold on to the public and were used for a variety of purposes, including the building of holiday homes by the sea, hen houses, dog kennels, kitchen cabinets and shelving, to mention just some.

Nearly a half-century on, Matt has shelves made from Ford boxes in his workshop and says they are still in perfect condition.