From Trash to Treasure…

TRASH TO TREASURE in a POST-APOCALYPTIC SETTING

[Nyerges is the author of “How to Survive Anywhere,” “Extreme Simplicity,” “Guide to Wild Foods,” and other books. Details about his weekly classes is available from School of Self-Reliance, www.SchoolofSelf-Reliance.com]

The world you know has exploded. Something big happened — war, famine, economic collapse, tidal waves, a comet hitting the earth, nuclear radiation, terrorist attacks, something. You no longer have the world that you grew to depend upon. No stores exist, and if they exist, the shelves are empty.

Thousands of people are dead, or gone. What do you do to provide for your most basic day to day needs?
Your basic needs never change. You need water, food, shelter, clothing. Beyond those very basic things, you need tools to make things. You need the tools to make the tools to grow and process food, to make new shelters (temporary or otherwise), to make clothing and footwear. If you have the know-how, you might be able to utilize electrical devices, and maintain bicycles for transportation. You probably will need weapons since the “police force” will be you and yours.

There’s no predicting what might be available in the aftermath of a major calamity. After a tsunami, everything familiar gets washed away, but there are still things about, things that didn’t get washed back into the ocean. In a major earthquake, everything is still there – it’s just all in piles of rubble. So you need to analyze your situation to see how you can take the products from what was and use them to create your new reality of what it.

So let’s look at the types of trash that are likely to be found after a disaster, and the needs that these might fulfil.

THINGS WE MIGHT FIND IN ABUNDANCE
Just like there are the four food groups (meat, dairy, grains, fruits/vegetables), there are the four trash groups – maybe five, depending on how we group stuff.

There are the ubiquitous PLASTICS, both soft and hard. Things like buckets, and wrappers, and food containers.

There is GLASS, mostly food and product containers, but also various household glass.
There are the many METALS, including food cans, beer cans, old car parts, old tools, screen doors, chain link fences, and a myriad of everyday objects.

There are PAPER and WOOD products, such as wrappers, egg cartons, newspapers, cardboard boxes, books, and many other similar products, most of which bio-degrade quickly, and are easily burned up.
You could lump FABRICS into this last category, though many fabrics are synthetics. These include old clothes, drapes, upholstery, and these too are generally very biodegradable, unless made with synthetics.

Lastly, there are the common items that go into compost pits, such as leaves, food waste, etc., and since these all biodegrade on their own, and are not particularly useful (except as part of the composting process), we won’t be addressing them here.

Let’s explore how some of these can fulfil certain needs. We are assuming that you no longer have the usual items that you would use to fulfill these needs under “normal” conditions.

FOOD, COOKING, HEATING
Large soup cans are useful for cooking soups and stews, and purifying water. All hobos know this. You can also invert a large can, cut some smoke holes, turn it upside down, and use it as a makeshift stove in the jungle or backyard.

Sometimes you need a grill or something to get your food away from the fire and not scorched. Any flat piece of metal can work as a grill, even a piece of a car door – but be sure to let it burn a bit so the paint burns off before you start cooking with it.

If you suspect a simple beer or coke can over a tripod onto a fire, you can purify water.
A large 55 gallon drum makes a great outdoor space heater. But everyone knows that, right? You all saw Sylvester Stallone in the Lords of Flatbush as the local boys would stand around their 55 gallon drum fires on cold nights and sing. These drums contain the fire, and make your fire safe.

TOOLS/ WEAPONS
In the post-apocalyptic world, you will need a personal knife, a large machete-like knife, a shovel, and probably a saw. For a saw, nothing really substitutes, but at least you can make cutting tools and shovels from scrap iron.

The quick make-shift knife is constructed from any flat iron, which you heat and pound into the desired shape. We’re not talking esoteric metallurgy here – just the ability to flatten a suitable piece of metal and grind the edge down so it’s sharp. Don’t bother with a wooden handle in such a situation, but simply wrap the handle with some cordage and tie it off.

TRANSPORT OF WATER
Plastic buckets of various sizes seem to be everywhere, and they are great for washing clothes, storing food, storing water, growing food, making compost, collecting rain, distilling water, and even transporting water. Yes, they really come in handy for water-related issues, something I hope you already knew.

If you have to transport water from the source to your camp, those 3 to five gallon buckets with handles are a great choice. It’s even better if they have lids.
Be sure to test how readily you can carry these, because when they have water, they will not be light. Let’s say you have “only” three gallons on each bucket. That’s 6 gallons, times about 8+ pounds a gallon, and you’ll have nearly 50 pounds to carry!

WATER PURIFICATION
Your easiest way to purify water is to pour it through some cloth, something fine like a pillowcase, and then to boil it to make sure it is disinfected. Boil your water in a can.
You can also fill litre water bottles – which are currently a scourge over the face of the earth and are likely to remain so even in the beginning days of post-apocalypse – and lay them in the sun for the UV rays to pasteurize the water.

A simple water still can also be constructed with flat glass or sheets of plastic, and some other hardware – we hope you read up on this before you ever need it – it’s a bit beyond the scope of a simple article.

CLOTHING
When the stores empty, and eventually your clothing wears out, you will (eventually) have to do what everyone else in the history of the world has had to do for clothing: You go naked, or you wear very little, like a loincloth. Or you grow cotton or other plants, process the fibre, loom it into fabrics, and sew that fabric into shirts, dresses, hats, pants, coats, shawls, and whatever you need. Or you kill animals and use their skins to create your garments.

We all know that there are about a hundred practical uses for a bandana. Make all the bandanas you need from an old sheet.

In the initial days of a disaster, clothes will not be a problem, but you should start to pay attention to not damage your existing clothing more than necessary, and maintain your garments. Should you need simple coats, or shirts, or dresses, these are easily made with available sheets, or blankets, or even upholstery from furniture or cars. If you do not know how to make simple garments, learn. And by “learning,” I do not mean watch a Youtube video. Enroll in a junior college class and learn how to size fabric, how to cut it, and how to sew it up by hand to make something you need.

FIRE
You will have no shortage of burnable material in the aftermath of a disaster. And hopefully you will not struggle to build a simple fire because you always kept many butane lighters handy. You should take the time to learn how to make a fire without matches before an emergency. But if you didn’t, remember that reading glasses and magnifying glasses make good solar fire starters. And though the post-disaster scenario is not the time to learn how to make primitive friction fires, you can always get a fire going with fine steel wool and nearly any batteries.

NEW SHELTER
We need shelter from the cold, the wind, the rain, the sun. In the short term after a disaster when homes are destroyed, you should be able to make-shift a tent or shanty from old plywood, tarps, and sheets. This is not difficult, as homeless people on the streets of every city have figured this out. But as time goes on, you will want to construct more permanent, roomier shelters using whatever natural materials are available.

Remember – in the post apocalyptic world, you’re not trying to find creative uses for trash – that’s what New Age hippies do at an Earth Day festival. Rather, you’re looking for the available trash that will fill your most pressing needs.