Green

As everybody know the 'it' word of this millennium is GREEN. Recycle, reuse, up cycle, conserve, and the list goes on. Now, I am not one to be outspoken on political issues, but something has been bothering me for a couple of days. I watched a craft-y show last week about cutting apart old clothing to then knitting it into new clothing. The idea, I thought, was nice, but the end product seemed as old and tattered as the skirt it was made from. I understand that there are very few uses for old clothing but wearing holey jeans as a scarf seemed a little far fetched for my taste.
Possibly, a better idea might be to not over shop. I know for me, I wear a small fraction of the clothing in my closet. Maybe I should give some of the under worn pieces to a women's shelter. I could probably spare all the clothes that are too small. Maybe collectively, we should start a community clothing exchange. We all have closets full of barely worn clothes that we would like to magically change into 'new' clothes don't we?!?
I just think that chopping up skirts and jeans and t-shirts to knit into blankets and scarfs is a little redundant. What may be a better idea is curb-side pick-up of actual recyclables. Couldn't this community use the economic boost? Couldn't we begin a community recycling plant? How about some wind turbines of our own? God knows we have enough wind here! I don't understand why small communities aren't using 'green' systems now, when they can easily be started and grow slowly and stably with the community. I'd be willing to bet we could truck the 6 county recyclables here to sort and turn a profit. Or, we could get out the rotary cutting and have at it on our jeans!