Precycling

This may be the easiest way to live green. If we make the
correct buying choices, we can prevent unwanted materials
from getting into our system.

• Each American uses about 190 pounds of plastic per
year. About 60 pounds of that is discarded as soon as
the package is opened.
• 30% of all plastics are used for packaging, and Americans
go through 2.5 million plastic bottles every hour.
• Packaging waste accounts for one third of all garbage in
the landfills in America.
• About 5 million tons (more than half of all plastics we
throw away each year) are packaging.

We can cut down on these numbers easily. Here are some
things you can do, starting today, to decrease packaging waste
through precycling:
• Buy in cardboard - not styrofoam - cartons.
• Buy cereal in boxes made of recycled cardboard. Those
boxes are grey on the inside.
• Buy in bulk - it's cheaper and uses minimal packaging.
• We often have a choice of buying beverages in glass or
aluminum containers rather than plastic. Choose glass or
aluminum because it's easy to recycle. The same
principle applies to buying sauces, condiments, baby
food, spreads, and other items.
• When given a choice, avoid buying items in plastic
containers.

Here's an amazing statistic to keep in mind: if 10% of
Americans purchased products with less plastic packaging just
10% of the time, we could eliminate 144 million pounds of
plastic from our landfills and reduce industrial pollution.

See, that isn’t hard, is it? During the rest of this topic, well take a
look at other easy but important ways to begin living green.