Conscious Precycling (Yes... I Spelled it Right)

Ok, I try to keep up with the times, but really, in all honestly, I'm just going through the motions, pretending, because I don't actually keep up with the times at all. I don't watch the news. Heck, I don't watch television. And when I read the local paper, I just end up writing letters to the editor so I try to minimize my exposure there too. So when the term "precycle" whizzed past my ears, they perked up. Precycle. What an ingenious word and concept. So, I went and Googled it, because isn't that what today's modern thinker does? We are Googlers with a capital G. And lo and behold, the concept of "precycling" has been around for years.

Well, not in our town. We're just talking about getting a RECYCLING program back in the community. Oh wait, let me rephrase that....the municipality is talking about getting a recycling program back in the community. There in lies a huge difference because we have a dedicated, albeit small group of people that are responsible for ensuring that there are at least some recycling options available in our communities. I am absolutely thankful for that and for their efforts and I totally take advantage of those options.

When I designed my home, I wanted to install recycle bins into my kitchen cabinetry. I felt that it would put me in a position of ensuring that I dedicated myself to recycling, and I have. I recycled before I built my house; it was just an uglier process that included exposed cardboard boxes in my garage. This new system has three big bins that spin on a caddy behind a corner cabinet; beautiful if I do say so myself. I had to special order those bins and it was worth it. I'm sure my builders thought I was coo-coo (Well, more coo-coo then they already thought...haha). Why on Earth would you waste kitchen cupboard space like that when each floor is only 650 square feet?! I was pretty adamant.

But in the back of my mind, I think to myself, if I'm recycling, and my neighbour is recycling, and people that live in communities that actually have a functioning municipal program are recycling, haven't we brought back enough tin and glass, and aluminum that we should never ever have to extract resources to make a new glass jar or aluminum can again? Why does more continue to be made, instead of just reusing what we've already used? People are obviously throwing away more than is being recycled, (still), so more resources continue to be extracted from our earth to make a convenient container for the non-recycler to drink out of and throw away again. Great. These people are definitely not precycling.

So then I started thinking about how much precycling actually goes on in my world, and I have to say that I've valiantly made a good start. Is it bragging to say that I may be ahead of the times? Precycling is based on the concept of making the decision before purchase and/or consumption as to whether that object really needs to be bought and/or consumed at all in the first place. It's conscious consumerism of weighing the pros and cons based on the environment and also based on actual need.

I'd like to brag and say that my choices are based on a conscious choice to save the world, but really it initially began because I was a starving artist/university student and had ingenuity. I wanted to make my measly income stretch as far as I could. And I was usually thinking about beer and how to get beer cheap. If I spent my money foolishly on gadgets and stuff, then I can't get a beer. Wait. I'll wash my clothes in my bathtub, cut my own hair and borrow my friend's jeans and live in them all year. Yup. I wore basically one pair of jeans all year, and then those quarters that would have gone down the wash, ended up going down the drain a different way instead. Beer consumption. It created a mind set. I realized early on that I could live a pretty decent life with a minimal amount and be just as happy, if not more happy, then I would be with money. And I was not surrounded by stuff. It was clarifying (and I was precycling).

Yet imagine that you didn't need to consider factors such as time or money in your life. Heck, while you're at it, imagine that you're a really buff movie star with all of the conveniences of the world laid out before you, including a personal chef, a nanny, a house keeper, an accountant...the whole bamboozle (no thanks, not for me, but let's play this game anyway). Ok, so we're some famous person who decides to go shopping. If that person doesn't need to consider the concept of making a quick, filling, and relatively cheap meal for their family before they head off to their night shift at work, they may consider buying healthier foods because they don't have to worry about having to find the time to chop vegetables. Who has the time to chop vegetables when you have to run out the door? People that have the option of hiring others don't have that concern. That's why they're all skinny and beautiful. *sigh* (Well, that and they're made out of plastic, but that's another blog.) But in reality, sometimes we compromise our health and our money and our time for quick, convenient choices. It seems that today, most choices are made this way. A lot of people don't have the time to even consider precycling.

Look at grocery store products. If you go to the produce section, not only can you buy an apple, but you can pick your choice of at least 5 different types of apples. But that apple does not have to be in its original form. If it's more convenient, you can buy that apple as apple leather, wrapped up in a little aluminum plasticy thingy. Or you can get the dehydrated apple rings that come in a convenient plastic resealable container. Or you can buy the individual, portion sized apple sauces that fit nicely into lunch bags. Or you can buy canned apple slices that already are coated in seasoning (and preservatives) so that you can make a "homemade" pie. And after consumption of that apple "product", you are left with a container that may or may not be recycled. You can get apple bits mixed with other fruit bits or dairy or crunchy things and this is put into plastic tubes with fun pop up lids, or that roll out or even ooze or spray. All of those products could have been made with that very same fresh apple that doesn't come in a package if someone just took the time and effort to chop it, or mash it, or dehydrate it. Heck, I wish I had that option. I've got a jar of apple sauce sitting in my cupboard. I'm not a saint. But at least it's a glass jar and I will recycle that jar. But if I was that movie star with more time on my hands, I'd be mashing those apples myself (or hiring some cute naked cowboy with an apron) and throwing the core in my composter. (Right now my dog is my composter. She eats apple cores like nobody's business! And she drools over brocolli stems and orange slices. My dog is a vegetarian.)

So obviously now I'm not washing my clothes in my bathtub (but I still cut my own hair most of the time). I can afford to live a bit more luxuriously and I can afford a beer here and there without having to wait for quarter draft night. So what do I do now as a conscious precycler?

Both Alexander and I pack our lunches in glass containers as much as possible. And my sister bought my son this really cool sandwich wrapper thingy that is washable, so I don't have to worry about wax paper or plastic wrap. If I knew how to sew well enough, I would make one for everyone I know, because they're just smart. Plastic wrap is the devil. We don't even own the stuff and really, it is not needed. It really isn't. When my dad wraps something in plastic wrap for me, I have to dedicate about a half an hour just to get the mummified food out of it. I buy a roll of it once a year for my art class when we do a watercolour unit because you can create a really cool effect with the plastic wrap. And I wash baggies and use them over and over again. But I try to avoid using them at all. I try to buy big ticket items second hand, such as my winter coats. They can cost anywhere from two to three hundred dollars if bought brand new!!! But my philosophy is that old men die and leave good coats, so I shop in the men's section at Value Village and other second hand stores for coats, and I've never been disappointed. This year I got a beautiful full length coat made out of llama and alpaca wool for $15.00! I affectionately call the coat "Tina" (after the Napolean Dynamite movie....if you've seen it you'll know what I mean.)

When I want to be frivolous and buy something for my house, I first see if it's available at a second hand store; especially picture frames. I'm in the process of painting a bunch of second hand picture frames white so that I can line my hallways with a variety of different art pieces and photographs I've created or collected. I buy furniture at garage sales and clean it and paint it. I have a funky purple vinyl chair that I got at a garage sale for $5 bucks! I've seen the exact same chair in modern furniture stores for hundreds of dollars.

And I know I keep on talking about money when I talk about precycling, but it is a huge factor in this concept. Look at it this way.....if I buy this product brand new, it will have to be transported to my little boonie town at the end of a two hour drive highway. That's gas consumption, pollution, shipping costs, and extra packaging. Did I really need that product that badly? Is my life going to be over if I don't have exact matching picture frames from IKEA? No, probably not.

And you know, I'm just as gullible as the next person. I like pretty packaging, and fancy looking labels. I'm an artist for crying out loud. I totally love that kind of stuff. But more and more I find myself looking at the product and wondering whether I need it that much just because its container looks all fancy schmancy. Artists are persuasive geniuses and know all of the tricks of the trade for visually manipulating you into buying crap you don't need. Standing in the hair product aisle is mesmerizing and overwhelming. My eyes go all freaky if I stand there for too long.

Hey, remember the day when occasionally mom would come home from the grocery store with a bag of cookies? Did you ever have "Dad's" cookies growing up? Remember how you would open up the bag that was made out of waxy paper, and there would be an accordion style piece of corrugated cardboard inside that separated the rows of cookies, and one of the most fun parts of getting the cookies was pulling that cardboard out? And then all of the cookies got put into the cookie jar and we carefully plotted our conquering of those said cookies, slowly, methodically. In the meantime, I snuck away with the zig zagged cardboard and turned it into some kind of craft. Have you opened up a box of cookies lately? It's plastic upon plastic upon plastic. Holy paranoid. Who complained enough about freshness for us to get to this point? If you want something to be fresh, go and get the ingredients and make those cookies yourself! That'll be fresh! And that'll be precycling.

And I love that people are really starting to get inventive with re-using packaging in creative ways. Susan at Junk n' Java makes really cool bags out of used coffee bags and vegetable bags. They're durable and easy to clean and hold a lot of stuff. My colleague at school made me a change purse out of ironed plastic bags that she cut, painted and sewed. I use reclaimed papers in my artwork all of the time. I have hired a woman to crochet a shopping bag for me out of all of the plastic bags I gave her. I make really cool camera bag/sunglass cases for my friends out of neck ties. I've seen purses made out of old jeans. It's nice to see, but in all reality, I think all of these crafts are made out of desperation. Many of us just can't possibly bare to put another piece of plastic in the landfill so we're making choices and changes and crafts.

Ask yourself these questions in all consciousness before you buy anything; absolutely anything:

1. If I buy this product, is there a "purer" form of it that is not over-processed?
2. If I buy this product, how long do I expect it to last in my home? Is it durable enough to last even a year?
3. If I decide I don't want this product anymore, where will it end up?
4. If I buy this product, and it won't end up in the recycle bin, how can I ensure that it doesn't end up in the landfill? Can I transform it into anything else?
5. What can I buy in bulk so that I'm not buying individually wrapped items?
6. Is it possible to buy this product second hand instead of buying it brand new?

Precycling is a big word. It entails preservation, preconceiving, and preparing. Those are words that take effort and conscious thought and I think we are getting well past the point of just considering those options, in all reality. How long can we deny truth and live in oblivion where if we don't precycle and recycle, someone else will. It doesn't work that way. It's not balancing out. And we can't all have naked cowboys chopping vegetables in our kitchen, but at least we can imagine that we do when we buy unpackaged, pure products that haven't been mummified in plastic. There's a reality that is manageable and available to everyone.

(Hey, are you thinking about that naked cowboy right now too?*grin*)