Even though the concepts of why we need to recycle and how to do it have grown over time the ideas aren’t new.
According to recyclingtown.com, recycling history dates back to as early as 400 BC. The people living in that period had to be creative with what they had.
Our ancestors had to recycle items so that they would be able to use them again. Sometimes the benefit was for monetary gain. For example, the Romans created bronze statues from gold coins as they were more valuable.
During the many wars this world has experienced, coins and jewelry were melted down and used to create weapons or other items that were a necessity.
This was all part of survival and we use those benefits now to ensure that there is survival for the volumes of people out there in the future.
After the Second World War, recycling was very high due to people being in a mode to protect all that they had. Then things started to change. Populations started to rely on the convenience of packaged goods and tossing out what wasn’t needed.
Recycling has and continues to evolve in order to ensure the overall well-being of our planet. But it has only been in recent years that we have seen an obvious change in recycling as a global and unified effort.
Technology has given us an inside look at how we can recycle. Now we have a means of being able to take paper, plastic, aluminum, tin, and more to recycle them in factories. We have the ability to really reduce the number of resources it takes to make what people need and want.
According to Earth911.com, curbside recycling now serves about half of the U.S. population, but that wasn’t the case in 1970 when very few cities offered these programs.
In order to recycle, most residents had to transport recyclables to drop-off centers, which severely limited participation. The U.S. recycling rate in 1970 was 6.6 percent, compared to a 33.8 percent national recovery rate in 2009, according to the most recent EPA data available.
In Canada, access to recycling programs has improved since the mid-1990s and Canadian households are recycling larger quantities than ever before. Households with access to recycling programs tend to use them equally.
