Recycling Articles : Recycling History

Back To Recycling Articles Index

Recycling is often thought of as a modern invention; something that has only recently become necessary or fashionable. However, if you describe “recycling” as reusing resources then you can trace it’s origins right back to the beginnings of humanity, with the first Hunter-Gatherers.

Evidence from the hunter-gatherer period shows that tools usually had dual uses - flints used to make weaponry were also used to make fire. Also, resources were carefully taken advantage of and soon humans learnt to use the parts of an animal that couldn’t be eaten, the bones, in order to fashion basic tools.

So, it seems that reusing and cherishing natural resources has always been necessary for survival - from the earliest hunter-gatheres through to the nomadic and pastoral societies that eventually sprung out of them, the recycling and careful use of resources has been integral to life.

Recycling and reusing was far less of a challenge in a down-scaled society where building and innovation was typically based on locally sourced materials - the stone from the nearby cliff or the wood from the local forest.

So, what changed? When did we stop being conscious of the need to conserve and reuse our resources? It all seemed to go pear-shaped at the point in history when governments began interesting themselves with expansion whilst practicing defensiveness (economically). During large global conflicts like World War 2, countries wanted more resources for themselves and were willing to export less to others. It can be argued that this has gradually led to a culture of greed and of wastage with too much being allocated to too few.

The rapid development of technology that characterised the 20th Century has led to the development of what has been called “the consumer society”. This means that people equate happiness with what they have, rather than what they are; an idea which tends to lead to overconsumption, greed and wastage.

Nowadays, we do not value individual purchases or possessions as much as our ancestors. You may disagree, but what did you do with all of the spare packaging from the last weekly shop you did? When our ancestors ate, they wore the fur afterwards but most modern goods are packaged in substances that are of little use to most of us such as plastics and tins.

The reason Recycling is now receiving so much media attention is simple. Scientists and others are beginning to foresee that the wastefulness of western society is beginning to take its toll on the planet. The basic question to put to yourself is this: Can our society justify producing unnecessary containers and packaging if they are only used once and then buried in the ground?

At the moment, our way of life is not sustainable and our solutions to the waste problem (i.e dump it underground somewhere) are not going to work in the long term.

The good news is that the traditional methods of recycling and reusing, such as compost heaps and repairing rather than throwing away, still remain. On top of this, new technologies have been developed to help us reuse rather than dumping glass, metals and plastics. As we begin to run out of space to dump non-biodegradable materials, the only question is will we turn to recycling on our own, or will we have to be forced.

Click Here To Calculate Your Carbon Footprint