Do you remember having bins like this?

Sometimes it’s only when we stop and look around at the world that we realise how much things have changed.

Can you remember what your rubbish collection was like when you were younger?

Did you know most households in the UK have only had recycling collections from the doorstep for less than 20 years?

Our summer holiday activity this week is to ask older members of your family about what they remember about recycling and rubbish collections when they were young. You might be surprised what they can remember. Here are some questions to help trigger stories from “the old days”:

Where did you live when you were younger? (Was it an area close to where you live now? What part of the country was that?)

Can you remember who collected your rubbish/bins? (Maybe there was a local character?)

Did you recycle? How? (Visiting bottle and can banks; local people collected from doorstep; rag and bone men came and collected old clothes and scrap metal)

Have you got any stories about what used to happen? (Did something funny happen? Did you throw something away that you shouldn’t have?)

With their permission you might be able to record them speaking about the past. Records of family history and memories are important and should be treasured. They can become a precious record of the past. See the Instructables page for how to record some family history here: https://www.instructables.com/id/Record-Your-Familys-Oral-History-before-it-dies-/

A summer holiday activity to reminisce!

A young woman wearing earphones is sitting at a table with a coffee cup. She holds her phone up to her face and smiles at the screen and waves.

A woman and a man sit in front of a laptop, looking at the screen and smiling.