Thinking back to my childhood living in the east end then near to the three docks where many factories existed, many more that i never knew about, how ever coming round to recycling, i remember the rag and bone man, going round the streets with his horse and cart, collecting what ever he could,
another time i remember another man going round the same streets this time with a rotating drum to which you could sit in and if you gave this man so many jam jars you got a free ride on the drum ,
and the weekly visits from the dustmen who in those days collected much more than they do today, except large furniture, or very heavy objects,
then came another man who gave you a gold fish in a jar if you gave him so many news papers,
of course in those days on a Sunday morning another man walked the streets with his long wheel barrow ringing his bell as he called out his wares, he sold eels, celery. shrimps, prawns, crabs winkles, cockles and other odds and ends,
for those of you who would also remember the tally man who called with his suitcase where many people then including my late mother paid weekly payments for slightly up market clothes,
and coming to home deliveries the coal man delivered to your house, even putting the coal in the cellar, then the baker as well as the milkman also called every day
in later years in the early years when my wife and i were newly weds there was a man who called once a week and delivered big sacks of potatoes to your door , and naturally you had to balance when you needed another bag,
even horse droppings where collected as people placed top priority on horse manure for their roses,
and finally taking empty beer bottles back to the off licence, as then i think we got a penny for every bottle, even the milk came in bottles, which were reused, again and again, presumably after they had been sterilised, before refilling,
so thinking back it seems that recycling and home deliveries have never really left us.
Q; Do you remember those times, if so what other things do you remember ,.