Do You Want to Do More Than Recycle? How to Precycle.

What is this Precycling we keep hearing about? Recycling is great, but keeping recyclables out of the recycle stream is Greener than recycling.

Simply put, Precycling is the act of “not purchasing” something that would otherwise be Recycled or thrown into a landfill.

Got all that? Good. Here are some examples of precycling.

How to precycle

Until very recently, whenever my wife and I went grocery shopping, we kept an eye out for products that are green, natural and packaged in recyclable materials. Eggs are a great example. You can purchase organic, cage free eggs that come in a recyclable plastic egg carton. Great, yeah? Sure, but what if we bought our organic eggs in bulk, keeping that plastic out of the recycling stream? Even better!

We buy 7th Generation paper towels occasionally. I had actually gone years without paper towels because I didn’t want to “chop down any trees.” So when post consumer paper towel came out, I was all over it. But hey, I was better off not using them at all. It takes energy to make even recycled material, right? And energy means CO2 and CO2 means climate change.

Think about how our produce is delivered to the grocery stores. Think about how many tractors, warehouses, trucks, boxes and hands they travel through. Then we pick them up in the produce aisle and put them in a little plastic bag. Does this make sense? Will that thin bag protect them from bruising, or keep an already dirty vegetable clean? Skip the bag.

Speaking of bags, we all know about using reusable bags at the store to keep the plastic bags out of the landfill. Using reusable bags is actually precycling.

Do you recycle your water bottles? Good on ya. But buying one aluminum water bottle will last years and could keep hundreds, if not thousands of water bottles from entering the recycle stream, and think about all the money it will save you.

We all have a toolbox or “junk drawer” somewhere with an inch of assorted nails, screws, picture hangers, nuts and bolts right? Use clear glass condiment jars to keep them separated on your work bench and you wont be running to the hardware store every few weeks to buy some more.

Need dirt for your flowerbeds? Instead of buying dirt (it’s amazing that something as common as dirt is actually for sale), compost.

Speaking of gardening, do your houseplants need a little boost? Instead of buying houseplant fertilizer, feed them some coffee grounds.

Speaking of coffee grounds, did you know that you can grow your own coffee and roast your own beans? (At least in the southern United States)

Do you really need a new coat, or a new pair of shoes? Try to determine the difference between need and want, then look in the back of your closet. You may be surprised at what you find.

Some times, the most Eco thing to buy, is to buy nothing at all, or the thing that you can use over and over again. How cool is that?

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{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }

1 Randy January 27, 2009 at 3:36 pm: Getting back into this green lexicon discussion, the term “precycling” seems a bit extraneous to me. If someone makes a conscious decision to refuse to use some disposable product which will only be either recycled, or thrown away, then doesn’t amount to simple conservation? They would be avoiding the harvesting of the materials in the first place. The initial cycle never takes place, so there’s really no “pre” about it. That would be a present tense action. Sorry if it sounds like I’m splitting hairs here, or being critical. I’m not, but after the discussion about the term “green” I have become more sensitive to confusing and frustrating the masses. Perhaps there are some who feel the term conservation is becoming old hat and needs a makeover? Or maybe the term precycle will be better received by a new generation since it seems like a new thing, even if logic dictates that conservation is as relevant as ever.

2 Adam Shake January 27, 2009 at 9:50 pm: Randy,
I see your point, and it’s a good one. I’m not a fan of useless words, but the word “Conservation” is one of those that already has more than one meaning. To assign another meaning to it, I think, would be a mistake.
I also think that it’s more succinct to say “Precycle” than to say “making a conscious decision to refuse to use some disposable product which will only recycled later.”
I think the word precycle, puts a thought or philosophy into one word that can be easily understood.

But hey, I’ve been wrong before!

Adam

3 Heather January 28, 2009 at 9:18 am: With regards to the paper towels thing — last year I lived in a community that had introduced curbside-pickup for composting, and in addition to ANY organic (using ‘organic’ in the ‘carbon-based life’ sense here, not the ‘grown-without-chemicals’ sense) materials (including meat and fat) you could compost paper towels, used kleenex, human hair, dryer lint, microwave popcorn bags… all sorts of things that you usually can’t compost in your backyard.

So I went through a phase of happily using paper towels again, knowing that they would be turned back into soil. Now that we’ve moved and this community does NOT have composting, I’ve gone back to cloth towels exclusively.

And for the plastic bags for your produce, you can use reusable bags for that too. There are mesh bags, and small thin bags, that you can get for your produce. They’re light enough that it doesn’t make a noticeable difference to the bill. Many also help keep your produce fresher too!

And since you mentioned growing your own coffee, we should also remind folks about growing EVERYTHING. I buy a lot of canned tomatoes. (I do buy as many as I can from the farmer’s market in the fall and preserve them, but they only go so far). This summer (now that I have garden space) I’m going to grow my own, and save on all those cans, and all the transportation and manufacturing etc etc, and not have to recycle the cans later either.

Do You Want to Do More Than Recycle? How to Precycle.

What is this Precycling we keep hearing about? Recycling is great, but keeping recyclables out of the recycle stream is Greener than recycling.

How to precycle

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