To me, this photo is the epitome of recycling. Found on Kennard Road in Nottingham, this fancy mailbox sports a childhood toy and holiday decorations. These ornaments have outlived their prime on the inside of the house and have now become outside ornamentation. The initial purpose has been satisfied...now the decor is being re-purposed, recycled, and reborn.This is not trash! It's not meant to rot, or not, in the landfill. No, to some this broken horse with a hole on the other side emits character. Not just the character of the childhood plaything, but the character of the person who recycled it: a true environmentalist.
To me, re-purposing and recycling are very smart. It takes imaginative minds to look beyond an object's primary use. It takes forward-thinkers to realize the value of finding new tasks for old things. He who has little, values his possessions...the same goes for environmentalists. He who has little, values possessions great and small, whether his or not.
Environmentalists care not only for his/her tiny piece of the world, but for the environment as a whole. Like my husband, an environmentalist takes a lazy walk down a rocky gravel road, picking up discarded aluminum cans tossed out vehicle windows by others. He brings home those discarded cans, combines them with his own, and stores them for a year until he's got twenty garbage bags full. Then takes them down to the scrap metal place a year later. His proud accumulation of discarded metal cans nets him fifty-bucks.
On Kennard Road in Nottingham you will find this re-purposed mailbox ornamentation. You will also find my husband lazily walking down our rocky gravel road, picking up discarded aluminum cans that non-environmentalist toss out their vehicle windows. Please don't toss your cans, recycle them and you, too, could net fifty-bucks!
(Photo by Lisa (Allen) Kennard 2009)
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