MANILA, Philippines--Growing up GROWING UP in the years after the war, I was taught to recycle things. Curtains morphed into tablecloths and aprons, clothes were handed down from sister to sister or from brother to brother, and oil containers became sprinklers. Of course, in those days we didn’t call what we were doing recycling. We thought we were simply and sensibly making the most of everything, since various resources were scarce after the war.
I remember that the garden was my favorite spot, and even then, I held close to my heart the principle of “waste not, want not.” We grew our own vegetables on the compost soil that we generated. There were no garbage collectors (basurero) back then, so we put our garbage to good use. Kitchen waste and yard waste (dried leaves and twigs), mixed with a little bird poop, made good fertilizer, and out of the rich compost soil came the vegetables that nourished us. The garden pots were used cans and the compost was mixed in used rubber tires. It was a natural cycle that we appreciated.
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