We are told in more than one place in the Bible that the Lord God Almighty intends to bring this earth to its' final end Himself. I will only quote one instance since it seems most appropriate to me for this discussion. Peter 3:10 But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up. 11 Seeing then that all these things shall be dissolved, what manner of persons ought ye to be in all holy conversation and godliness, 12 Looking for and hasting unto the coming of the day of God, wherein the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat? 13 Nevertheless we, according to his promise, look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness.
I like that! We don't need to fret over what "might" happen to the earth in 200 thousand years if we drive too much or throw our plastic wrappers away carelessly or incinerate the old newspapers we cleaned out of our grandparents' house. There is great liberty in those verses from the scare tactics that are forced upon us today.
Ought we to be good stewards of God's creation? Yes. But, man, whether capable or not, is not going to be permitted to destroy this earth! God will attend to that Himself; and, by the way, He intends to destroy this place He created out of nothing with a Big Bang (evolutionists just got theirs at the wrong end) and one huge fire (think, major "pollution").
Whew! Now that we don't have to sweat that any more, why am I recycling?
Well, first off, I'm not recycling according to the "accepted" method. I am not dividing my trash into several piles and making trips to dump certain types at "special" recycling locations. If you want to do that and feel it's a good use of your time, go ahead. You're welcome to it. I have enough sorting with just our laundry. ;-)
What I am doing is what my parents and grandparents did in the past. I'm saving things and reusing them for other purposes. Now, before you visualize cupboards full of flimsy butter containers, piles of old pizza boxes, and bags and bags of bags and bags let me say this - that's not exactly what I'm doing either. :-)
My main interest in reusing things effectively is to save some of my husband's hard earned money for other things. We're talking budget conscious recycling and reusing, not fanatical collecting or saving the earth. My aim is to save a little money, but not go to excessive effort nor to collect things randomly just because they "might" be useful sometime. Most of my ideas are probably pretty well known in general, but I thought it might be interesting to share some of my little projects in that line here with you. I also may include some other ideas for "waste management" in the home. :-)
I am reminded of an old poem I first saw in one of my craft books:
Use it up,
Wear it out,
Make it do,
Do without.
This pretty much sums up my "recycling program".