Practice PREcycling

I know that everyone is onto the Recycle,Reduce,Reuse part (well I hope you all are) but what about precycling? Precycling is as simple as reducing waste before you buy.By making the right choices when shopping , by precycling, you can prevent excessive waste and the need to recycle.Although recycling is wonderful it does require energy to recycle those products and therefor uses up large amounts of energy at recycling centers and puts a significant amount of pollution back out into the air.Which is counterproductive.

* Each American uses about 205 lbs of plastic per year,about 65 lbs of that if for the packaging of the items we buy and is thrown away as soon as the package is open.
* About 30% of ALL plastic is used for packaging.
* Americans go through almost 3 million plastic bottles every hour!!!
* Packaging waste accounts for almost 1/3 of all garbage American send to landfills.
* Buyer packaging amounts to roughly 5 million tons of waste a year.

So I know you are wondering what you can do right?? Be aware of what you are buying.Everything you purchase has a effect on the environment.Try to make it a positive effect.Here are a few simple things you can do:

* Bring your own reusable bags to the store so you will never have to answer "Paper or plastic?" again.
* Buy eggs in cardboard cartons and NEVER in styrofoam. Or if possible go to a local farm and buy them there.
* Look for the recycled logo on all boxed items you purchase.
* Buy in bulk.It's cheaper and uses minimal packaging.
* Buy veggies loose and not in plastic bags.The best way to do this is to buy locally from a farm or farmers market.Or even better yet grow your own.
* Avoid squeezable plastic containers, which are made of different types of plastic in several layers, and are non-recyclable.

If only 10% of Americans purchased products with less plastic packaging just 10% of the time, we could eliminate about 144 million pounds of plastic from our landfills,reduce industrial pollution, and send a message to manufacturers that we are serious about alternatives.Maybe if YOU rethink how you buy items then THEY will rethink how they send them.
Refuse what you don't need
Reduce what you do need
Reuse what you can't reduce
Recycle what you can't reuse
Rebuy (buy recycled) whenever possible.