Everybody knows what recycling means, or so I hope. You take
something that normally would have gone to a landfill and instead send it off
to be made into something else. The reason we do this is so we don't have to
procure new raw materials. When the raw materials are things like petroleum
(used to make most plastics) recycling can be great for the environment. But
this all comes with a price that we tend to look the other way on.
The recycling process itself can use great amounts of
energy. It often takes secondary vehicles for pick up, thus using more gas. And
the recycled material is often more expensive to use in manufacturing new
products. And a few studies have shown that some of the materials that gets set
aside for recycling ends up in landfills anyway. Most products and packaging
are not designed with recycling in mind. With the exceptions of paper and
aluminum, everything else gets recycled at a high cost.
Before you turn around and throw your recycling bin in the
trash let's take a closer look at precycling and upcycling.
Precycling
This strange to say non-word, has a pretty neat meaning.
Precycling is a step to take to avoid throwing things out or recycling. For
example, instead of using a plastic sandwich bag to pack your lunch sandwich in
everyday, you use a useable plastic container like Tupperware or Gladware. This
container can be used thousands upon thousands of times without being thrown
away or recycled. Yes there is some environmental impact on the initial stage
of making the product but it far outweighs using thousands of plastic bags that
have to be thrown away. Using canvas bags at the grocery store (or at every
store) is a great example of precycling. You get hundreds if not thousands of
uses out of them versus one use out of plastic grocery bags.
The second meaning to precycling is using post-consumer
recycled products. We can use paper towels for an example. For starters, use
less. If you need to dry your hands in the kitchen use a dishtowel that can be
washed. Buy a set of cloth napkins to use versus paper towels. It is a tad more
work but saves a ton in paper waste. For the remaining jobs use recycled paper
towels (I use Meijer Ecowise, 100% recycled paper, 80% post-consumer content,
also it is one of the cheapest options).
Buying recycled products also help the recycling industry.
Though part of the cost is higher material cost another is simply supply and
demand. While there is supply coming in from various sources the demand for
recycled products isn't as high. If more and more of us buy these products the
price will come down with time.
Another thing that can be done is switching some of your
media over to digital. Mostly I think disposable media (newspapers and
magazines) should be read on tablets computers and smart phones without the
need for a physical version anymore. I still like physical books, records, and
artwork.
Upcycling
This word makes you think it has something to do with
bicycling in the mountains, it simply means taking something you were going to
throw away and turning it into something else. An example of this would be
taking a jam jar and instead of recycling it you can work with your kids and
turn it into a soy candle. Vinyl records can be turned into bowls or even
curtains (only use terrible bands though). If you are on Pintrest or Etsy you
can see tons of examples.
Final Thoughts
Remember it is not just reducing the things that go to
landfills that is important to a healthy planet. We also have to reduce the
things that go to recycling by using them more and more. It is important to get
the most mileage out of everything not to mention it can be fun and save you
some money.
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