Precycling?

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I pat myself on the back every time I rinse a glass jar of spaghetti and toss it in the yellow bin for recycling pick up on Tuesday. But lately I’ve been thinking more and more about this bumper sticker I’ve seen that reminds us, “Reuse BEFORE Recycle”. Perhaps its out of sheer poverty that I have given this more thought, as we have, along with the A’s downstairs, moved to Portland with not so much as drinking glasses for cups.

Originally I had thought I would love some trendy “Green” dining and glassware, such as pretty recycled glass cups or bamboo plates and bowls. And if my bank account would have supported such lofty dreams, my cabinets would surely house these pillars of “Green”dom. It would have been hard for me to bite my lip when having guests over to dine, wanting so badly to point out the nifty environmentally conscience salt shakers, (for Christ’s sake!)

But alas, no one at my address makes enough to spend 7-15 dollars per plate, so my brain started a thinkin’. It was Mstroxy’s (the Mrs. A., downstairs) who thought of collecting POM teas while we are out, slowly turning them into her very own assortment of drinking glasses (I believe this might be the one positive thing we got from the Hostile Situation!) Sure enough, just two months later and we’ve all got plenty of POM glasses to go around. I’m not sure if this is the perfect illustration of Precycling, or Reuse, but bear with me.

Today I took a look at some of the things we were about to toss out. The water jug. The plastic tub of cookie dough with a perfectly good lid. Rather than tossing them in with recycling, (a noble thing, perhaps, but still a use of energy and resources that may not always be necessary), I filled the water jug up with filtered water at Wild Oats for just 59 cents, and used the cookie dough tub for some food scrap compost. (I plan to get a much bigger and more permanent composting bin, but it worked for my apple peels today.)

We have also used this approach to furnishing our home, as best as we can (and again, the catalyst for all this reuse being lack of moolah). I’m sort of obsessed with Craigslist at the moment, especially for Portland, the stuff just rocks. Our couch, side table, tv stand/console, Lil’ E’s toddler bed and toy box, our entire bedroom set, even our Ikea spice jars, all were purchased from Craigslist, a resale store or a garage sale. I’m not even ashamed to admit that we look for FREE ads in Craigslist and have picked up off the road: bamboo blinds now hanging on the windows in the living room, old wooden fruit crates that I have used for office supply bins and pantry/closet organizer, and more. Sometimes there’s a little bit of dusting off to do, but more or less this stuff is in great condition, clean and even trendy. And just think how much garbage we have NOT created because these items do not come with boxes and plastic packaging and foam and all sorts of what nots. There was no shipping gas wasted to deliver it to our home, save the ten minute drive in our sedan. AND, when we turn around to sell these items, we are likely to get nearly what we paid for them, rather than crossing our fingers for a mere 30% of the price you paid for furniture when it was new, (and, most likely, financed!)

We’ve got an incredibly long way to go before we can toot our horn and be “no impact” or something. In fact, the true spirit of this movement (movement?) is perhaps NOT being proud, just simply realizing the impact of your footprints on this earth and doing your best to tread lightly.

At the moment we are still eating on paper plates and using chop sticks and a few random bamboo sporks as our utensils, but I plan to start looking for random dishes of the same style or hue, putting together an eclectic mix of plates and such, like our good ol’ grandparents used to do! Sometimes I’m amazed at that generation, one that sewed the holes in shirts and brought shoes to be refurbished. No wonder they could live without Super Wal-mart!!!