I became mindful of the concept of recycling from childhood because my dad liked instead of to throw away a plastic milk jug (which he'd paid for, after all) use it for some kind of purpose around the house. Back in those days the only organized routine recycling efforts were "newspaper drives", and folks would take their bundles of old newspapers to the local elementary school and volunteers would load them into a big truck. As for extra plastic milk jugs - or anything extra except perhaps scrap metals, which households did not routinely generate - there was nowhere for them to go but in the trash; what we now picturesquely refer to as the "waste stream".
In 1990 I was enrolled in a Chemistry course during which the teacher included in his lectures about energy the idea of recycling as a way we can all preserve it. I started recycling in earnest at that time, possibly finding it easier to get in the habit due to my childhood. Nowadays I think most trash handlers offer relatively inexpensive recycling options. Where they don't, many communities have recycling centers which charge no fees.
My dad was also into composting (not girlfriends, I hope), a hobby I have yet to adopt since to do it correctly and in order not to have a real mess involves more responsibility for maintenance than I'm yet ready to commit to, though I do recycle yard waste at the curb along with other household recyclables. Alas, egg shells, banana peels, kitchen etc still go into my trash.
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Now we do more, I just meant we did this back in the ooooold days. 
