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In the old days, a pile of garbage at the dump would be set afire, and everything combustible would be burned away, while the oxidation of the metals would be well-begun. Then, the non-combustible metals (which will eventually degrade) were buried. Glass was sent back to glass factories as early as the 1920's to be recycled again and again, into insulation, fabrics, and more glass items, and aluminum, copper and brass were recycled. Large items of iron or steel were shipped back to steel mills.

When my parents were kids, recycling went something like this: Dig the vegetables. Cook and eat the edible parts. Feed the other stuff (peelings, roots, tops, etc.) to pigs, goats and cows and reap the rewards. If you had something in a glass container, the container would either be reused indefinitely, or broken and buried away from the house. Steel cans and tin items were reused over and over. when they finally outlived their usefulness, they were flattened and used to patch holes in outhose walls or burned repeatedly until they disintegrated to the point where the barrel of ashes (everybody used a 55-gallon drum to burn trash) was taken to the garden and spread on the soil. Occasionally, a ketchup bottle or a little blue Vicks jar was saved for a flower vase. Even though rubbish was generated (although in a much smaller way) recycling was being utilized on a very local and personal basis for many years.