Waste not, want not
If you think twentieh-century man was the first to come up with keep-it-clean campaigns and paper recycling, think again! We are certainly not the first ones to fuss about cleanliness nor the only ones to recycle waste. Early humans used things found in the environment, and after they were done or consuming them, they made new things out of them. Man ate the meat of animals shaped the leftover bones into tools and weapons. And, thus, humans began’recycling’, or using trash and waste to make new materials from old ones ( Paper recycling )
Recycling, an old art!
When humans moved from hunting and gathering in the early days of their existence to farming, they took care of their trash intelligently. Ash from fire, wood, bones, bodies, and vegetable waste, were all buried in the ground as they helped improve the soil.
Way back in 2000 BC. people in China were practising this as a method of disposing of waste. In fact, the first garbage dump was set up in Athens in 400 BC. In AD 1031, the Japanese used waste paper and re-pulped it to make new paper. In 1690, people in America were turning cotton rags into paper, and in 1776, they melted down a statue of King George III to make bullets for use in the war of independence!
Happy B’earth’ Day!
It was during the two world wars that the shortage of food, clothing, household items, and other essential items pushed people to choose, use, and throw things wisely.
The modern recycling movement took off in the 1960s. The United Nations declared March 21, the first day of spring, as the first Earth Day, John McConnell was the man who thought of a worldwide celebration for our planet, when people around the globe would come together and promise to take care of the planet.
Today, Earth Day is celebrated on April 22 all over the world.