Precycle! Think before you buy

Written by Anonymous / 24 April 2009 / Read 's latest blog entries.

Cross-posted from BCIL Alt-Tech Foundations Blog

The classic Reuse, Recycle and Reduce paradigm has been the mantra for a while now. 'Why create a problem and then solve it,' thought the leaders of sustainability movement.

They have coined a word 'Precycle' to promote simple lifestyle based on refusal to buy any time that you can do without. Why buy a packaged grocery and then throw away the packaging material while you could perhaps go in for unpacked fresh ones?

If everyone adopts a 'Precycle' system and carefully choose items while they go on a shopping spree, wouldn't we have much less waste to deal with? We wouldn't have to worry about landfills, would we?

Not too long ago, we in India never had this much packaging. I remember going to grocery shops (typically run by one of the South Indian traders community) around the road corner opposite my home and purchase the items in loose. We always had to carry that yellow-cloth shopping bag that had seen many such shopping trips. Everywhere we went in Pondy Bazaar or Luz Corner in Chennai (then called Madras) we'd come back with many such yellow-cloth shopping bags. A Nalli Silks yellow-cloth bag would obviously be more proud to carry around than a Nellai Lala Halwa Shop bag. That was before plastic bags were invented.

Plastic revolutionized the way we carried our belongings. Perhaps, it is time to bring back that yellow-cloth bag. Would it be fashionable to carry your own yellow-cloth bag next time you go for your shopping? That wouldn't be cool, huh?

Precycle is a cool trend. The world is going after it. Why wouldn't you?