By Lee Cataluna
Advertiser Columnist

The trouble with the current mindset of recycling is that, at least from the standpoint of the household consumer, it's still about throwing stuff away.

Sure, some private company at the end of the line can buy crushed glass and turn it into glassphalt. Paper can be mushed back into paper. They can hammer aluminum into fenders for little cars. We get all that stuff out of our house to make room for buying new stuff, which will then turn into trash after one use.

A couple of generations ago, our grandparents practiced true recycling. They didn't throw a thing away. They reused and re-purposed right at home.

The party dress that got passed between cousins until every girl child in the family outgrew it, Uncle Bobo's threadbare aloha shirt, the mu'u mu'u your mother always wore to church — every piece of clothing that was no longer wearable would show up in a patchwork quilt. Or the edging of a dishtowel. Or curtains. There were stories about dresses that went from curtains to dresses and then back to curtains. Throwing something away just wasn't even considered. These days, you can BUY packages of household rags. We don't even make those ourselves.

Then there were the 101 uses for empty coffee cans. Planters for anthuriums, orchids or green onion. Storage for extra nails, screws and other small hardware. A measuring scoop for flour when making bread. Bread pan. Cake pan. Coin bank. Worm farm. Tackle box. Ashtray. Spittoon. Bedpan. Cookie jar. The list goes beyond 101, as far as a creative and thrifty person can imagine.

Jars were saved for when it was time to make jelly, jam, chutney or prune mui. Even if there were already fifty thousand empty jars in the house all ready and waiting for jelly, you'd save the next one so you'd have extra to give away or to sell at the church bazaar.

Newspaper became wrapping paper. Fancy wrapping paper turned into drawer liners. Never mind what happened to Sears catalogs.

A determined mind finds a use for the smallest scrap, be it 3 inches of string or an empty matchbox. When all else failed, a little piece of whatever could be turned into a toy. A piece of cork makes a great boat or race car. A bottle cap will spin and hum on a length of string.

Even food got re-purposed. Coffee grounds and eggshells for the plants. Papaya skins for the chickens. Chicken scraps for the dog.

The value system was different. Thrift and self-sufficiency were seen as important; as moral issues more than economic goals.

We live in a time when the label "disposable razors" doesn't mean that the little pink plastic things disintegrate or fold down into something smaller; just that their lifespan is short because their blades can't be replaced.

Lee Cataluna's column runs Tuesdays, Fridays and Sundays. Reach her at 535-8172 or lcataluna@honoluluadvertiser.com