My These Times, They are a Changing

When I think of camping I think of being rustic with conventional means; conventional sources. When we'd be camping we'd drink plenty of this & this, though it's sold more like this & this or this now-a-days.

And just as that's changed from decades ago, so have our receptacles. We recycle things now. And like good little, faithful soldiers, our family stepped up to the plate. If something we used was something that was to be recycled, then we'd make sure to get it in its proper bin. We'd notice if campgrounds had the ability to help us recycle; or, if our recycling load was light enough, then we'd just bring it back to the house with us when we left camp.

It's always seemed that our family made sure to do most everything by-the-book. Recycling while at camp was no exception to this supposed standard. We'd have a plastics & aluminum bag or Mom would be ushering one of us kids to run the items to where they belonged (probably some receptacle like this sitting out back behind the camp store) before our accumulated bottles, cans, & containers could begin taking up too much of our space. Typically we'd have this recycling stashed in the back of the minivan just behind the middle row of seats, which was the last row of seats while we'd be on our vacation trips - since we'd use that final large gap - which the official last row of seats missing - for our much needed cargo space. Remember the totes from this post?

Nowadays it's common, rather it's expected, that, headed to a park, & many a campground, you're going to see a black receptacle for the trash, & to its side, a blue receptacle for everyone's recycling needs. Similar to these, though possibly on a smaller scale.

Our family didn't get into composting in the same way. Whenever we'd have apple or pear cores from all of Dad's fruit trees that lined the backyard, they got tossed into the general trash.  That is, unless any of us happened to be in the backyard, pulled fruit from its place on the tree, & ate the fruit while remaining in the backyard. Then that core would just get chucked over the hill which sat at the base of the backyard, immediately following the family shed.

This also reminds me of a funny story from when recycling was first introduced & our teacher in school instructed our class on how recycling worked; how it would be set up. And the introduction point was that recycling wouldn't mean that we'd be separating out all of our garbage; that we wouldn't be separating our banana peels & placing them separately...Then the teacher explained which types of items did match a recyclable profile. Now that I'm writing this I'm beginning to think that teacher might just have been a composter. 😂

Dad composts a lot now & happens to have a rather full receptacle for this purpose. He has a composting bin that looks exactly like this one. He especially likes that material gets inserted cleanly from the upper section & is easily retrievable from the bottom section, at the doorway. Though their weekly recycling receptacles are also quite full & overflowing as well. 😄

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