Separating garbage

Well, folks, we separated our garbage back in the 40s and 50s -- and that was before the EPA!

We had to separate our trash/garbage. We had two trash cans, one barrel (for trash that we could burn), and a can for ashes. Mom would cull out the garbage, without coffee grounds, after our meals, and that garbage would be put in one can, which was picked up by a different set of garbage collectors than the trash collectors. The paper products were taken out to the barrel for burning, and the metal and glass garbage was put in its own trash can, which was picked up once a week and thrown into a truck.

The food garbage had to be separated from all the other trash because in those days there were pig farms just across the town border in Westville. And believe me, if you were down-wind of those pig farms you knew it. The garbage collectors would just pick up the can and toss the contents into the back of a dump truck (phew it stunk) and that was carted down to the pig farms for the pigs to eat.

The pigs ate our garbage, yes they did. And back then we had to worry about trichinosis from pork products because who knew what was in the garbage those pigs and hogs were eating?

One night there was a fire -- we could see the glow in the western sky -- and one of the largest farms went up in smoke that night. They lost most of their pigs.

Another sort of our garbage/trash was that the ashes from the furnace were placed in an open metal container and those ashes were tossed into still another truck -- in case there were some live coals I suppose, it was not the same truck as the trash truck -- just in case some people didn't burn their own paper in their back yards.

Trash was picked up on Monday and Friday -- we put out all three receptacles on Sunday night and Thursday night.

After the sewer system was installed in the early 50s the town passed an ordinance that there would be no more in-yard burning of leaves or paper or anything else. So, we didn't have the trash barrel for burning anymore.

Just through you'd want to know that being good to the earth that God gave us, by sorting our trash/garbage is not a new concept, it's been around since, well, at least for 65 years, and I would imagine much longer than I've lived.

Coffee grounds -- mom used coffee grounds as fertilizer for her rose bushes. Sometimes she'd wash the grounds down the kitchen sink drain -- apparently coffee grounds were like Drano. We never had a stopped up kitchen drain.