Life in Geezerville: “That Green Stuff” Edition

Geezers do you recycle? As a geezer you have been recycling long before you knew it was called recycling. Back then, we thought it was the right thing to do. Remember when you were a kid and collected bottles? Each bottle brought in 3 cents—a six pack brought in 18 cents. Sometimes, you got an extra 2 cents if you brought the bottles back in their 6-pak container. If you had a big soda bottle, you got a nickel when you returned it. Those were big sums of money, especially if your allowance was 10 cents a week. 

 

I remember asking the lady across the street if she had any bottles that needed to be brought back to the store. If she did, she told me I could keep 10 cents and she wanted the rest. That was a good deal. I doubled my weekly allowance. YAY.

 

Of course, I remember free paper bags from the market. We used them for everything from wrapping boxes that were going to be mailed to faraway places, to covering books, (books were precious and we needed to protect them). Brown paper bags were saved to be used again and again. The idea is so ingrained in my thinking, that I still save those big brown paper bags as they come in handy every now and then.

 

When I was a kid, plastic was a rarity. It was around, but a plastic container was cherished. Plastic did not break. It kept things fresh, and it came in pretty colors. Remember Tupperware? My mother had a collection of Tupperware that she used regularly. Do people have Tupperware now? I have a small collection of Tupperware that I inherited from my mother. It is ancient Tupperware. It still works. Is the current plastic as tough as Tupperware? I have to ask, how many people have used and reused a current plastic water bottle? 

 

I live in the great state of Nevada. There are a few recycling bins in our little town, and a few people use them…but generally speaking, folks don’t recycle. Is it too hard to do? While recycling might save the planet, where is the incentive? Saving the planet is far too esoteric to think about. Earning 3 cents a bottle is immediate and does the same thing. Nowadays, 3 cents might not be an incentive to recycle, but how about 30 cents a bottle. I’d recycle more if I got 30 cents NOW and that would save the planet in the same way. It would be easy to go to the store with my empty plastic bottles and get money NOW in return.

 

Some states have opted out of recycling. WY does not do it. On the other hand, ID and CA do. You buy a plastic bottle and you pay a recycling fee. All you have to do is take the empty bottle to the recycling facility on the far side of beyond in your town and you’ll be given a check for your trouble. Not immediate enough. Us geezers want instant reinforcement. We’ve been taught from an early age to get something in return now. When I went to the corner store, I got 3 cents for every bottle RIGHT NOW. It was possible then, why not now?

 

Geezers have long memories. We did the “green thing” aka recycling, long before recycling became popular. It was part of growing up. Along the way, the throw-away society came about, and those old habits were stomped upon by progress. 

So when a youngster at the store scolds you for not being green, don’t tell her about paper bags, and glass soda bottles. Geezers have been recycling all their lives. It was a matter of necessity. Give that youngster a wry smile and keep quiet. We remember vividly our parents telling us “Make it do, wear it out, use it up, or do without.” Does this current generation of folks even know that saying? You’ve been recycling all of your life, and you will continue to do it because it’s right—even if the youngsters don’t believe you. Remember, we’re in this together.