Recycled

“What is that brown thing on the fence, Myrtle? Can’t hardly make it out. These old eyes are just not what they used to be.” Charlie shook his head, took his glasses off and polished them again. “Useless old things. When is the eye appointment with that new fellow we’re seeing?”

“Charlie, ask me one question at a time. That ‘brown thing’ is an old bird house. Now what bird would even want that old thing. I suppose somebody just didn’t want to throw it away. There’s enough trash as it is. I suppose it’s not hurting anyone hanging there. Just doesn’t make sense. And the eye appointment isn’t til next month. You’ll probably have to get new glasses and you’ll have to get rid of the old ones.”

“I’ll take ‘em down to the senior’s centre. You told me they recycle them - give ‘em to others that need glasses and can’t afford them. Too bad that old bird house can’t be recycled the same way.” Arm in arm, the elderly couple continued their evening walk. Myrtle stopped suddenly and pulled on her husband’s arm. “Why can’t it? Little Robbie has a school project about recycling!” Their grandson was always with his grandparents after school til one of his parents got home from work. “Grandma, teacher gave us a project today. We have to recycle something and then write a paragraph about it. We can find something in our house, in nature or in the school.” He had looked pretty dejected about the whole thing. “Looked like he’d lost his last friend. Let’s see if we can get that old bird house for him. If he doesn’t want it, well, maybe you can fix it up, Charlie”

Robbie’s grandparents did indeed get the birdhouse for him. The owners were more than happy to get rid of it. “We were just going to throw it in the trash. That fence has to come down. I don’t even remember where it came from, or why it’s hanging on the fence. If your grandson can revive it and use it in his school project, then it’s in good hands.”

Over the next few months, Robbie took it apart, put it back together again with new nails, and gave it a fresh coat of bird friendly paint. His paragraph told the story of how he got the birdhouse, that it was about to be thrown away, and that he would hang it in the tree in his front yard. There were little mistakes - Robbie wasn’t the best at describing things ~ but he did get a B+. Fixing up the bird house had been fun!

“There is no such thing as “away”. When we 

throw anything away it must go somewhere.”

~ Annie Leonard