Do you know Kim Carlson, the “footprint blogger” at the Star Tribune? No? You don’t think so? I believe you’re mistaken. You may not know Kim Carlson by name or by her Strib blog, but you certainly know Kim Carlson. As evidence I submit the first line of her latest post:

I was feeling a bit virtuous as I was bringing my recycling to the curb this morning.

Not many people can summarize their entire personality in a single phrase, but I think Kim did a terrific job of it here, don’t you? I mean you absolutely know this person after reading that sentence. Kim is the kind of person who believes she’s “saving the planet” by her own everyday activities. Recycling makes her feel virtuous. But it doesn’t end there, as you well know. No, when you’re Kim Carlson life is little more than a quest for the next guilt trip.

Then I decided to look up some recycling facts and was quickly deflated. According to RethinkRecycling.com, the average Twin Citian still produces 7 pounds of waste per day and one-third of what we throw away at home is recyclable through curbside programs. I suppose it is no surprise that nearly 30 percent of our trash is packaging – urgh!

Urgh! indeed! Why oh why didn’t we compost our packaging or use it as feed for our backyard chickens?! Why oh why didn’t we… oh heck, let’s stop guessing and see where she decides to run with it. It’s bound to be as entertainingly goofy as anything we might invent.

This got me thinking. How can I reduce what I throw away and also reduce the need to recycle? Precycling is part of the answer and becoming a buzz word for this next decade.

Kim never lets us down. Precycling!! It’s hip! It’s trendy! It’s… semantically strained. I mean really… The word “recycling” makes sense in that there is a “cycle” from raw materials to finished product for one to “re” enter (i.e. re-use old finished products in place of new raw materials). How does the modifier” pre” fit into that at all?

Have no fear. We have Kim to explain it all for us, as we all knew she would:

Precycling is reducing waste by not acquiring it in the first place (even if it is recyclable). In other words, being thoughtful at the point of purchase in addition to at the point of throwing out. Precycling saves precious natural resources, helps with greenhouse gas reduction and can save you money.

Drink in the wonder that is Kim Carlson, dear readers. She has suddenly discovered that it is possible to actually not make unnecessary purchases, and felt the need – nay, the duty – to go share this groundbreaking discovery with the rest of us.

It’s almost like, bear with me for a moment… I’m just thinking out loud here… It’s almost like we might not only recycle but also… reduce… our use of things. And… and maybe this is just the beginning! It’s even possible… I know I might sound like a dreamer here, but stay with me… some day we might discover the means to re-USE things as well! Some day we might even turn this into a catchy slogan! It could go…. Precycle, Reuse, Recycle! Or… ahem… something.

Anyway the rest of Kim’s post is filled with handy “precycling” tips so that you too can feel virtuous. Here’s a few of my faves [ed. – with a few related observations] :

Reading your news online instead of buying a newspaper. [ed. – Bet Kim wouldn’t list that one if they carried her blog in the print version of the Strib as well as the online version.]

Give a gift of an experience rather than a thing – movie tickets, dinner gift certificate. [ed. – Because we all know leaving your garbage outside your house for others to handle is just like not creating any at all.]

Use a lawn service so that you don’t need to purchase lawn equipment. [ed. – Ever get the feeling all this saving the planet is out of your price range? What’s next? Dine at the same club where you golf to reduce your limousine’s carbon emissions?]

Use a permanent coffee filter. [ed. – But don’t clean it, because that would create waste water and defeat the point]

Buy a block of cream cheese rather than a tub. [ed. – An unpackaged block of cream cheese presumably. Just don’t ask where it’s been.

Anyway, Kim doesn’t pretend to have all the answers here. All the virtue, perhaps, but not all the answers. Therefore we come to the patented Kim Carlson reader participation portion of the post…

These are just idea starters. I am sure that many of you have bigger and better ideas of how to Precycle. Give me your ideas and let’s decrease our collective garbage habit together!

Precycling ideas! Sounds like a challenge. Or a dare. However you’d like to take it.

This entry was posted by by Bogus Doug on Wednesday, August 5th, 2009 at 2:35 pm and is filed under Global WarmingCoolingChange, PC / "Woke" Culture. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.