Conservation Coming Back

When we cleaned out my Great-Grandmother’s house after she passed away, we were reminded of the fact that she had lived through the Great Depression.  She washed and re-used Ziploc storage bags.  She used the boxes her bank account checks were mailed to her as drawer dividers in her kitchen junk drawer.  Empty coffee cans served as storage containers or small wastebaskets in rooms she used less frequently.  We found plastic drinking glasses she took home from picnics, sporting events, or fast food restaurants – washed and placed in the cabinet like other dishes.  Nothing was wasted.

She raised my Grandmother who put out a soapy dishpan at the 4th of July picnic each year, to collect all the plastic utensils for use in decades to come.  Grandpa kept every random piece of wood or metal that got anywhere near him, certain he could use it “one day” to make “something,” and the fact was, that he did that, often.  He made checkerboards out of leather scraps he collected from the factory he retired from.  He made us grandkids a sandbox, tire swings, and even a merry-go-round out of stuff that he had lying around.

My parents’ generation was the first to be exposed to the concept of “disposable” things.  Food that comes in containers you are to throw away, paperback books that are not considered family heirlooms, shoes you can’t re-sole, clothes that are cheap enough to throw away rather than mend, disposable diapers, plastic bottles, and so on.  That generation learned less about taking care of something and more about how to get replacements for something that is no longer working as it should.

My generation grew up with all manners of disposable things.  You didn’t have to really take care of anything; you would just get a new one when you needed it.  Sewing a button back onto a perfectly good shirt was a skill that my generation largely overlooked.  Just donate the shirt to charity and get a new one.  If the washing machine stops working after many years, it will cost more to have someone come out and look at it.  Just have a couple of guys throw it out by the trash and have a new one delivered.  Nothing is permanent, all is disposable, just throw it away and get a new one.

The kids that my generation raised have been hitting adulthood for the past several years.  They are used to disposable cell phones, televisions, laptop computers, and even cars or houses.  There is almost nothing that they have been trained to try to maintain indefinitely.  Antiques do not interest them.  Things that must be fixed are a nuisance.  Consuming is a primary activity.  Maintenance is not.  You can buy a new one much cheaper than having someone try to fix your old one.  Recycling is something that you participate in, not that you actually ‘do’ yourself.

Those folks are just now starting to raise their own children.  I expect that the trend will continue, the trend to not hang on to anything, to get rid of something as soon as it is no longer pristine, as soon as it begins to show wear, or as soon as a newer model with better features comes out.  That seems to be working okay for now, but as our dumps fill and as our resources dwindle, we will eventually need to go back to old ways, of maintaining things for many years, rather than discarding them at the first sign of wear.  I’ll be ready for it because I learned a lot from my Grandparents and Great-Grandparents, but not everyone is as lucky as I am.  Some people are going to have to learn those techniques the hard way and it’s not going to be pleasant for them.

Marlo Archer, Ph.D.
Down to Earth Enterprises
1250 E. Baseline Rd., Suite 102
Tempe, AZ 85283
(480) 705-5007