Precycling

Recycling is a common term these days. We separate our cans, bottles, and paper products in our trash bins and haul them to the curb on trash day. Many people go a step further and redeem their empty bottles and cans at recycling centers. We can recycle many plastic, paper, glass, and aluminum products, even recycle  our possessions in order to make sure they don’t end up in a landfill. While recycling is great, we still have better ways to improve the environment.

Another great, possibly better, way to help is precycling. Precycling is “stopping waste before it happens.”¹ Precycling is being aware of what we are buying and making sure it goes the extra mile. It is being aware of the item itself and anticipating how long this product is going to serve your needs and how that reflects on possible environmental factors. When buying anything, make sure to think of how long the item is going to last, is it just an impulse or something you think you need, and if it’s the best for the environment in its category. Can it be recycled, better yet can it be toxic materials  that will leach into the environment once discarded?

Paper products are high on the list of items that we use daily, however, paper is not a long lasting material. Here are some ways to cut down on paper usage:

• Read the news online versus getting a daily/weekly newspaper, you will get the most recent news and you can easily search for specific content.²
• Something you might be doing already with the new bags laws: here !
• In classrooms, if the instructor allows it, taking notes on a tablet or laptop is much more efficient to cut down on paper and will make it easier for you to keep up on lectures, a nice bonus of this is being able to search your notes when studying for a test.
• If you absolutely need to print paper, try to limit the amount you need by making margins smaller and printing on both sides of the paper
• We all get junk mail, specifically those pesky credit card offers. To avoid getting as much junk in the future, read here ! You may also want to consult the Federal Trade Commission’s resources.

Entertainment is important for most of us who just want to sit down and relax after a long day or week. There are ways to precycle here as well:

• Instead of buying movies or tv show seasons, consider switching to services such as Netflix, Hulu or any of the many streaming services available. You will have a monthly cost but vast amounts of tv shows and movies are available to you through almost any device.
• Speaking of disks, you can buy music online as well, instead of buying CDs for your musical entertainment.³ Another option is music streaming services such as Spotify, Pandora, or YouTube Red.

Food is the one thing that we buy consistently and almost always comes with some form of plastic container or packaging. Fortunately, we can use precycling techniques here too:

• Buy bulk. Buying your most used foods or items in bulk changes the ratio of how much packaging is included with your item. Plus, buying in bulk is more cost effective in the long run, generally speaking, especially if you live with a large family or roommates.⁴
• Buying unpackaged fruit, vegetables, grains, nuts, etc whenever possible. Buying produce from Farmer’s Markets  lets you avoid packaging altogether with most items, and some retailers are also practicing by offering their products in bins, free of enticing packaging so we are free to buy exactly what we need.⁵
• Aim to purchase juices and other liquids in concentrate when available and dilute them to fit your needs.⁶ Buying concentrate cuts down on bulky bottles.

Precycling is a great way to minimize your personal proper waste disposal  methods, making sure that these carefully picked items are being sorted into the appropriate containers.