Precycling The Essence of Conservation essays

Precycling The Essence of Conservation essays Precycling: The Essence of Conservation As we shift into a new millennium, our society must face the pressing environmental issues that we have ignored for so long. The earths resources have dwindled tremendously and unnecessarily in recent years. People need to start saving our precious resources through precycling. Precycling, a fancy word for waste reduction, is any activity that prevents or minimizes the toxicity or quantity of waste. This would include product reuse, increased product life, reduced material and energy use in product design, and changing purchasing and waste producing habits. Toxicity reduction includes changes in product and packaging designs, and purchasing reusable toxic items rather than disposable ones. Precycling should be a higher priority than any of the other waste management methods, including recycling. Waste reduction is the most environmentally friendly form of waste management because, unlike other methods, there is no need to process or transport materials. As a result energy and resources are saved. Source reduction is hardly an issue with companies and consumers. It seems like a contest of who can put the most excessive packaging on their products. The good news is that the decisions we make every day can support precycling in a big way. Schools can be role models for precycling and plant a seed for students to take action. At Ashland High School, the back side of paper should never be wasted. Printers (with available technology) should print on both sides as well. On assignments done at home, homework could be put on a disk and given to the teacher to view, rather than be printed out for one-time viewing. Reusable plates and utensils should be used in the cafeteria rather than wasting hundreds of paper plates every lunch hour. While precycling can be accomplished at AHS, students need to be informed on what they can do in their own lives to save our resources. It’...