Genius in a bottle

1700s: Colonists collect rags to be used in making paper for, among other things, the printing of money for a rebellious new nation. They have to import some rags from Europe.

1800s: Cotton is scarce, and scrap wool is collected for use in stuffing mattresses and making saddles and military uniforms and blankets. Recycled wool was called "shoddy."

1880s: Immigrant and poor families comb the streets for rags and bones and goods to repair and sell. They lived on streets with names such as "Bottle Alley" and "Ragpicker's Row."

1908: Waldorf Paper Mill opens in the Midway area between Minneapolis and St. Paul. With no forests nearby, the recycling mill uses scrap paper from the Twin Cities.

World War I: People eat "meatless and wheatless" and collect scrap. But large-scale wartime recycling never takes hold because the United States was in the war for a short time.

1920s: During the Roaring '20s, Americans begin to embrace a consume-and-waste lifestyle. Recycling and re-using, once done by all, is now considered low-class behavior.

1930s: During the Depression, many people hang onto what they have, fixing and making do or doing without. They save the odd shoe or piece of string, "just in case it's needed later."

World War II: If you didn't recycle, you were aiding the enemy. A poster featuring a Japanese soldier read: "Honorable Spy Say: Thanks for the can you throw away."

1960s and '70s: Hippies and other counterculture types embrace recycling and re-use. Groups operate voluntary recycling centers, often in conjunction with food co-ops.

1987: The garbage barge Mobro roams the Eastern Seaboard, looking for a place to unload. The well-publicized dilemma makes landfills and recycling hot issues.

1989: Curbside recycling becomes law in Minnesota. Block captains set out signs weekly, reminding their neighbors that "Tomorrow Is Your Recycling Day."

2000: In Minnesota, 46 percent of all garbage generated is recycled, the highest recycling rate in the nation.

2005: Recycling contributes millions to the state's economy. Meanwhile, recycling goes global. Minnesota scrap travels to markets across the country and even to China.

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RAG TIME

In the 1800s, peddlers went to towns and homesteads, often exchanging tin plates, pails and trays for rags and other castoffs.

A FLASH IN THE PAN

During World War II, the price of a movie ticket was a donation of a tin pot. Butchers collected used kitchen grease from customers, to be used in making explosives.

HIGH PLAINS DRIFTERS

On the Northern Great Plains in the 1860s, the skeletons of slaughtered buffalo were picked up and shipped East, where the bones were turned into fertilizer, used in sugar and paper processing and in button-making. The industry was a boon for railroads because cars that once returned empty were now carrying a valuable freight.

Sources: "Waste and Want," a book by Susan Strasser, Tom Troskey, a spokesman for Rock-Tenn Paper, St. Paul, and the Minnesota Office of Environmental Assistance.