Recycling

I always enjoy opening my email and finding mail from my readers. A question that has often been asked of me is: Do the Amish recycle?

I can not speak for every Amish family or community but what I can do is share our personal experiences of being Amish.

We were raised with this saying:

Use it up,

Wear it out,

Make it do,

Or do without.

The garbage truck did not make regular stops at our house. Once a year was usually all that was necessary to pick up a bag of garbage which usually consisted of any dishes that had been broken, worn out wicks for the oil stove, and a few empty tin cans from pineapples.

The few newspapers we received were saved. They were used for several different things before we discarded them. Spreading them in a guest bedroom and then covering them with tea leaves to dry. Twisted into newspaper logs to use for fire starters in our stove. Wetting them and placing them under tomato plants to keep moisture there for the plants and reduce weeds.

Plastic grocery bags were saved. Some to be used again as a bag when ever we needed one but most were cut in half and given to my aunt Emma. She had a rug loom and made hundreds of rugs to sell. We especially liked the ones she made with grocery bags to use on our porch or in the basement where muddy shoes and boots were used.

Since we raised and canned most of our own food, tin cans were rare but the ones we did get got used until they were ugly before we put them into the garbage. A little kerosene in the bottom and dropping potato bugs into them. A container to hold earthworms to go fishing. Molds to make silos out of sand in the sandbox. And yes, even potty training.

Old clothes were torn into strips and used to make rugs. Fabric scraps were saved to make quilts. Food scraps were fed to pigs or other animals.

We never took things to a recycling center, but I would still say we did our fair share of recycling.