Your Guide to the –cycles

November 20, 2008 · Print This Article

Filed under: Tips

Are you having a hard day keeping all the recycle spin off terms straight? Here are a list of definitions to keep you in the know.

Recycle according toWebster is “to pass again through a series of changes or treatments.” In other words you put the paper in the bin, it gets turned into mush soon after back into paper again.
Freecycling happens when you clean out your closet and pass unwanted goods directly to someone else’s closet via Freecycle.org.
Precycle has been covered here before. It means buying something that has little waste to deal with in the first place.
Upcycle was first used in Michael Braungart and William McDonough’s
book, Cradle to Cradle: Remaking the Way We produce Things. It means to take an element and recycled it into something of equal or greater value than what it had in its previous life. For example, have you seen the price of those recycled glass countertops?
E-cycle refers to recycling your old walkman or last year’s phone.
Bicycle a motorless vehicle with two wheels propelled by pedals.

Your Guide to the –cycles originally presented on Green Daily on Thu, 20 Nov 2008 15:56:00 EST . Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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