Recycling could mean riding your bicycle or dirt bikte on the same trail again and again. But what normally comes to mind is re-processing refuse into productive avenues.
Recycling is gaining more and more attention. While collecting recyclables when we are camping is sometimes inconvenient, camping provides many opportunities for us to recycle goods and materials from home that would otherwise end up in land fills. What better way to recycle kitchen utensils, tools, linens, clothes, etc. than to put them in your camping kit! Although the current recycling trend is often seen as the domain of environmentalists, the idea has actually been around a long time. Growing up in a rural environment, we re-used almost everything. My dad built our first house from lumber, bricks, and stones salvaged from an old house he bought to tear down for the materials. I like the old saying: "Use it up, wear it out, make do, or do without." It is a much wiser and more efficient way of living than our current mostly disposable lifestyle. In my mind way too many current consumer products are designed to be thrown away rather than repaired.
Think recycling is something new? I don't think so. As mentioned above, here is an old adage "use it up, wear it out, make do, or do without" I learned from my grandparents. That is a really good concept to apply when camping, especially when boondocking. When my dad built our first house (in the country) he bought an old house in town that was being torn down and dismantled it. We salvaged wood and bricks and stone window sills and some of the fixtures. The entire structure of our house was built from recycled lumber and the chimney and patio from used brick. We had an antique bathtub salvaged from that same house before they became fashionable.
Buying a pre-owned RV or other used camping equipment is in itself a productive way of recycling. It is a good way to both save money and "give stuff a second chance", as the billboards for some popular thrift stores say. RVs and camping gear often get very little use so pre-owned equipment can be a excellent bargain. I've even found brand new camping equipment in thrift stores and garage sales. Owners either bought stuff or received gifts that they never got around to using. I find garage sales a good place to shop for gadgets I want to try out so I don't invest a lot of money at full price in case they don't work out. Even when you buy something new, it is only new the first time you use it, so why pay extra for that one first use?
You can recycle many household items as camping items instead of throwing them away when you upgrade. The old 2-slice toaster that your family has outgrown is a handy addition to your RV. It may take longer to make enough toast for everyone, but its small footprint and lower power consumption may be appropriate for camping. You can create your own fire starters from old egg cartons, sawdust, and melted down candle stubs. If you happen to enjoy a rural lifestyle where you have large animals to feed, you might recycle the twine from hay bales for camp use. Old pots and pans and other kitchen utensils often find new life in your camp set, adding convenience to your camping at no cost. Towels, sheets, blankets and other linens that may no longer be suitable for entertaining company at home are perfectly suited to enhancing your camping experience without the worry of damaging costly items. Likewise, some old clothing is handy to have in your RV or camp kit. It may not be as attractive or fashionable as you might like, but having clean, dry clothing has saved or added comfort to many an outing. Organizing extra tools into a portable tool box can provide an attractive option to getting stranded by a motorhome, tow vehicle, or OHV breakdown and having to call for expensive towing or road service.
The common understanding of most recycling applies mostly to what would otherwise end up in the trash: primarily disposable containers.
Recycling of aluminum cans is one of the most common and most popular of recycling programs. Of course one thing that contributes a lot to that is reclaiming the 10 cent deposit we pay on every can. Since we often enjoy a lot of cold beverages in cans when we are camping we often accumulate a lot of empty cans. Crushing them is one way to reduce the volume for transport but not all recycling places accept crushed cans, so don't crush yours unless you plan to take them where the cans are weighed and it doesn't matter if they are crushed or not. Crushing cans is easy. There are can crushers available but most people just stomp on them. Some guys think it is macho to smash them against their foreheads, but I certainly don't recommend it!
These days recyclables must often be sorted by type. That means you need separate bags for things like glass, cans, and recyclable plastic. To add to the complexity, not all plastic bottles are recyclable.
Traditional recycling in camp or on the road will take some extra effort. You'll probably need to separate your recyclables and commit some space to storing and transporting them and space is often a a premium. It doesn't take a lot of effort or consume a lot of weight and space to stomp down your aluminum cans and bring them home and you can usually get paid a little bit for them. Plastic and glass containers are usually somewhat more difficult to manage and usually don't produce payments. You can recycle newspapers and paper towels by using them to wipe your plates before doing the the dishes, then using the crumpled papers to help start your campfire or charcoal BBQ. Some plastics can be disposed of in the campfire, but always avoid breathing the fumes. And remove the cap from bottles or they could heat up and explode, sending hot embers all over and perhaps into your hair or lap!
Hauling stuff home to be recycled can be messy and inconvenient but don't feel too bad about disposing of it in proper trash containers in camp since doing so might lighten your load and reduce fuel consumption on the way home. Just don't leave it lying around to compromise the environment. Besides that, about the only things being recycled that really make environmental and economic sense are lead acid batteries (car batteries) and aluminum cans. The benefits of recycling paper, glass, and plastic are debatable. At least one expert on recycling that I read recently suggested the only things that make good sense to recycle are those for which you get paid. If there isn't enough money in recycling something to pay an incentive, the process is probably not economically nor environmentally sound. In some cases recycling actually takes more energy and costs more and leaves a larger "carbon footprint" than using raw materials! Reading that made me feel a little better about tossing trash that was otherwise a nuisance to handle for recycling. He cited lead acid batteries and aluminum cans as examples of good things to recycle. Plastic and even glass bottles and newspapers didn't make his cut. I use old newspapers to start fires and to clean windshields and BBQ grills.
Is recycling worth the effort? There are differences of opinion, even among recycling experts. I once read an article from an recycling expert from UCLA who conclude that only those items that you get paid for, like lead batteries and aluminum cans, are worth recycling. And it goes way beyond your personal renumeration. If an item isn't worth a manufacturer paying for, it typically isn't worth the time, effort, and the cost of collection and processing both in economic and environmental terms. Another article I recently read from the University of New Hampshire, claims that in many cases, recycling actually wastes more resources than it saves. Given all the various opinions, I have personally agree with the UCLA expert: if industry is willing to pay for it, it is worth recycling.
Recycling goods and materials from home is a good way to minimize your camping costs and reduce your environmental impact at the same time. Recycling in camp helps keep our camping and staging areas clean. If choose not to recycle, make sure you dispose of all containers safely. "Pack it in, pack it out"!
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