Eco-cent$

In the late 1980s, the city government in Berkeley, CA called upon residents to buy food packaged in recyclable materials--an act they called "precycling." (Source: The Recycler’s Handbook, The Earthworks Group, 1990)

While not as popular a term as recycling is today, "precycling" helps close the recycling loop by strengthening the market for recycled materials and also supporting companies and workers who make products from recycled goods.

What you buy has a direct relationship with what you throw away or recycle. The key to precycling is thinking ahead. When you buy a product, it comes with packaging. If the product and the packaging are designed to be thrown away and not recycled, then you’ve got garbage before you buy the product. Remember that while shopping and you’ll reduce the waste stream and your waste consumption before you even leave the store.

Think about this! Take for instance your juice beverage. If you drink out of a drink box, you must throw it away when it’s empty. But if you fill a thermos or water bottle with juice, you can take it home with you when it’s empty, wash it out, and reuse it. Plus, most juice concentrates are "packaged" in aluminum cans--something you know you can put in your recycling bin to get recycled. So by doing this, you’ve not only recycled the packaging, you’ve saved other resources from heading to the dump. How’s that for making your money count for the planet!