National Recycling Day — 15 November

What is National Recycling Day?

I hope you’re ready to recycle because November 15 is National Recycling Day and we’re making sure nothing gets turned into waste. According to “National Geographic,” Americans send 64 tons of waste to landfills during their lifetime. That’s 246 million tons of waste each year. National Recycling Day aims to encourage Americans to purchase recycled products and recycle more.

History of National Recycling Day

Recycling is a much older concept than we give it credit for. Archaeological studies have found that during periods when natural resources were sparse, waste dumps show less household waste, giving many reason to believe that they were recycling and reusing products in the absence of virgin materials. 

In fact, finding recycled or reusable resources has always held a premium in human history. Whether it’s the “dustmen” of Victorian era England, who went around and collected coal fires to help with brick making, or the development of shoddy and mungo rags combining used materials with sparse amounts of virgin wool, recycling has played a key part in our relationship with natural resources. 

Additionally, in modern history, wartime has always been a period of buckling down and recycling. Most resources in wartime go to, well, the war. So citizens typically need to find innovative ways of reusing what materials they have for what they need. Additionally, scrap metal and second hand materials is increasingly important to help create a bank of resources for armies to turn into utilities. Examples of this are from World War II with the National Salvage Campaign in Britain and the Salvage for Victory Campaign stateside. 

In our modern times, nationalism has been replaced with environmentalism and the urge to help preserve our sparse resources by reusing goods and reducing waste. So, if pre-historic humans can figure out how to recycle, your annoying roommate can figure it out as well.