What is Precycling
Essentially, precycling is the next step we can take from recycling. Rather than bringing all this unneeded packaging, etc, into your home and then recycling it or throwing it away, precycling means that you actively avoid buying products which have needless packaging, therefore reducing waste even further. Recycling is certainly a worthwhile thing to do, but nevertheless requires a lot of energy to be used during the process. By precycling we can hopefully force manufacturers to use less packaging on their products in the first place.
Ways to Precycle
- Buy consumables in bulk to avoid the extra packaging that buying in smaller amounts produces.
- Avoid products with unnecessary packaging (e.g. buy loose fruit and veg instead of pre-packaged)
- Avoid junk mail. Sign up to a service like Mailing Preference Service http://www.mpsonline.org.uk/mpsr/ to help stamp out unsolicited mail.
- Switch to online media. Magazines and newspapers create a huge amount of waste every single day. Why not try getting your news online? More and more magazines and newspapers now have online editions.
- Take your own non-disposable bag shopping, reducing the need for carrier bags.
- Use cloth nappies instead of buying the disposable ones. Not only will you be precycling, you will also save a considerable amount of money!
- Buy rechargeable batteries for the things which go through a lot of power (kids toys, etc). They may be more expensive to begin with, but rechargable batteries will pay for themselves very quickly.
There are many other ways you can precycle. Take a look at the amount of packaging and waste you produce in a week, look at where it comes from and see if you can think of ways to reduce that waste.
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