by Paula Mitchell-Bentley

Created on: January 11, 2009

Precycling is a way of filtering what sorts of materials come into your home. Specifically, precycling is buying items according to their packaging. Many items have excessive packaging. Some have extremely excessive packaging. Precycling means that you try to bring home items with less packaging on them.

It can also mean that you only buy products in packaging that is recyclable. For example, if there isn't a plastics recycling program in your community, then a precycler would prefer to buy something in a non-plastic package. I would suggest talking to city or community officials to see if you can get a plastics recycling program in place though because there is so much plastic sent to landfills.

When many consumers join together to stop buying products, businesses start to change their methods. Businesses need to know that excessive packaging will not be tolerated by people tending towards products with less and more efficient packaging that is easily recyclable.

Toy companies are some of the worst offenders. They often come in cardboard and plastic boxes tied down with a variety of twist ties (metal coated with plastic is hard to recycle), screws, elastics, etc. etc. etc. I've found that usually by the time I get the toy out of the package, my toddler is jumping up and down. It just seems forever to get whatever it is out of the box. Many parents remove all the packaging from toys before they are wrapped for Christmas for this very reason.

You may think that your individual choices as a consumer will make no difference in the big scheme of things. The truth is though that change can be made on an individual level to effect a global problem. The landfills of today are overflowing with items that are completely unnecessary, such as extra packaging or plastic bags. When these unnecessary items are cut out, the landfill problems will slowly start to get better.

As a consumer, it's important that you think about items that you spend your money on and bring into your home. I'm not suggesting that everyone become 100% eco-friendly, eating granola and living chemical free. What I am suggesting is that people can easily get slightly greener by making conscious decisions about the products that they buy. If you precycle enough and there are enough people doing the same thing, companies will start to notice. There are many new "catch phrases" in our environmentally friendly world. Precycling is more than just a word though, it's a lifestyle choice.

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