Embracing Pre-cycling and Recycling at 100% PURE

Thank the land, sea, and stars for the three chasing arrows! Born from Earth Day in 1970, the triangular-shaped recycling symbol is a widely-recognized code and reminder to properly dispose of our waste to lessen our environmental impact. But how about pre-cycling, any arrows hitting you?

If you don’t want to set your sights on Cupid for this one, we’re here to share the love on this perhaps unfamiliar recycling practice. While at the very core recycling makes a HUGE impact on the health of our planet, pre-cycling goes one arrow further.

Let’s share the love on pre-cycling, its benefits, and values to you and the environment. We’ll share 100% PURE’s pre-cycling efforts and why this waste reduction in surplus packaging is so important to us – and hopefully, to you, too. With this shared knowledge, together we can make a lasting difference for the good of planet Earth.

Simply, if recycling had a best friend, it would be pre-cycling. Like its dear friend at reducing waste, pre-cycling entails eliminating the need to recycle or dispose of waste by not creating waste. By pre-cycling, you’re reducing your impact on what goes into the waste ‘system’ by buying and using items that are unpackaged, reusable or recycled. This step should be taken before you have to recycle.

Since pre-cycling eliminates waste at its source, trash is eliminated before it is created. Though it may seem tedious or overwhelming, pre-cycling is all about knowledge, intention, and practice. Once you adopt the practice of preventing additional waste before it is created and then ends up in a landfill, you’ll be a pre-cycling perfecto in no time. Baby steps will work just fine to get there.

Purchasing and consuming as many recycled and recyclable goods as possible is key to a treasure trove of gifts that pre-cycling offers. It also opens a plethora of benefits for the planet – and everything in it.

#1. Preventing Over-Reliance on Recycling

Essentially, recycling is the process where recyclable goods are made into new goods, and for starters, that’s possible by people sorting their garbage properly. Next, recycling is not free. In terms of waste reduction, recycling is more of a last resort; a costly process to be avoided if possible.

Due to the costs involved because of the machinery, labor, and storage space required for effective recycling, many countries, including the US, export the majority of their recycling. Hauling many tons of plastics around the planet creates massive emissions that would be circumvented through practices such as pre-cycling.

#2. Preventing Future Greenhouse Gas Emissions

Creating products takes a lot of energy. Take plastic water bottles for example. While recyclable, the plastic used is primarily made of polyethylene terephthalate (PET), which requires fossil fuel, specifically oil, to produce. Using fossil fuels for energy has exacted an enormous toll on humanity and the environment. By reducing our reliance and consumption of such plastics, we are in effect reducing our usage of fossil fuels and the impact on the environment, including air and water pollution.

3. Preventing Future Waste

According to data collected by the EPA in 2018, the average person in the United States creates 4.9 pounds of waste every day. Of the estimated 292.4 million tons of generated solid municipal waste, about 146.1 million tons end up in landfills. For as effective as techniques like reusing, recycling, and composting are, they cannot solve all our waste problems. By pre-cycling, we can help reduce the amount of waste going into landfills every year.

#4. Protecting Health of Skin with Organic Brands

Sticking with quality organic skincare brands with sustainable business and product packaging, including with pre-cycling measures, helps protect your skin and health among making the planet a happier environment. For example, at 100% PURE, each product is fully biodegradable and made from plant-based ingredients that can return to the earth with as little eco-disruption as possible. Each product is either vegan, organic, or both – and all are non-toxic.

All our packaging is BPA and phthalate-free, so you won’t need to worry about toxins seeping into your makeup, skincare, body care, or hair care. Our mission is to improve the lives of humans and animals across the globe, and to reduce our carbon footprint and negative impact as much as possible. More on that below!

Pre-cycling is not a lifestyle that happens overnight. Like with most things, it takes intention and practice. You can start with baby steps to integrate the techniques into your daily life. Here are some little things you can do while you plan bigger pre-cycling changes for the future.

Eliminate Potential Waste through Reusables

Let’s start by addressing that reusables, when used frequently, are much more environmentally friendly than their problematic single-use counterparts. Try packing reusables in your car, bag, and backpack. A quick Internet search could locate some easy-to-use zero waste reusables, which include grocery bags, thermoses, silverware, and coffee containers.

Shop Brands that Use Minimal Packaging

If your local grocery store has a bulk section, consider bringing your own reusable grocery bag and filling it up! Be mindful of the goods you buy online, observing if their packaging includes easily avoidable single-use plastics or package cushioning.

Buy Used and Share with Friends

Instead of always purchasing new clothes, call your stylish friends and suggest a clothes swap. It’s an eco-friendly way to update your wardrobe and catch up with your favorite people. Don’t have a fashionista friend? There are plenty of stores with used items with little cost and often have programs that donate a portion of proceeds to local charitable causes.

When it comes to electronics, and we’re in the BIG days of technology, by buying, for example, a used laptop, you are eliminating the energy, materials, and costs associated with producing another brand-new laptop. The less new goods we need to produce, the better for the environment.

Shop Organic Brands that Use Minimal Packaging

Be mindful of the goods you buy online, observing if their packaging includes easily avoidable single-use plastics or package cushioning. At 100% PURE, our products are fully biodegradable and made from plant-based ingredients that can return to the earth with as little eco-disruption as possible. We ship orders in recyclable shipping boxes, and protect products from damage with biodegradable packing peanuts made from corn starch.

To expand a bit on our sustainable packaging measures, 100% PURE packaging is made from recycled materials – post-consumer recycled glass, plastic, tin, and paper. Materials otherwise that would have compiled into ever-growing landfills. Instead of creating more trash, we always package all our pure formulas in packaging that was once a water bottle, old coffee paper cup, and more!

There are also our big packaging efforts. We are updating to new packaging and all of the packaging is from post consumer recycled materials but in the meanwhile 100% PURE has been using pre-cycling packaging recently to reduce waste and repurpose unused surplus packaging. For instance, in an effort to repurpose the surplus in packaging that was used for our hand sanitizer gel and hand sanitizer spray, we launched an array of new and exciting products for our customers.

Products that are currently in our pre-cycled packaging include:

Strawberry Brightening Scrub
This berry brightening facial scrub made with puréed strawberry, pineapple, papaya, cranberry, bilberry, grape, lemon and orange blended together to feed your skin vitamins and antioxidants while gently smoothing away bumps and flakes with lactic acid and AHA fruit acids for a super glowing complexion!

Mushroom Peptide Serum
Concentrated with 11 different skin beneficial, this serum unlocks firmer-looking skin with the addition of quinoa peptides that make skin more resilient, vibrant, and increase firmness and elasticity. These medicinal mushrooms have many valuable properties to increase health, glow, and vibrancy to skin.

Coffee Bean Face Serum
With the popularity of our famous 100% Pure Coffee Bean Caffeine Eye Cream, our devoted fans demanded a skincare version. Rather than correcting dark circles and de-puffing like the eye cream, this cult-favorite face serum tightens, brightens, and helps reverse sun damage for an immediate healthy, vibrant glow.

Coffee Bean Face Cream
Like our fan favorite eye cream and serum, we offer a face moisturizer version with threefold benefits: 1) Firming, 2) Illuminating - through enhanced circulation, which brings about a natural brightness akin to the glow after physical activity, and 3) Restorative - caffeine aids in rejuvenating sun-damaged skin while providing protective properties.

Black Tea Grass Jelly Anti-oxidant Moisturizer
Featuring black tea and grass jelly, this moisturizer effectively soothes the skin while providing intense protection against free radicals. Formulated to sink deep into the skin, this hydrating moisturizer combats signs of aging by nourishing skin with powerful hydration and beneficial antioxidants so skin looks firmer, brighter, and more youthfully radiant.

Black Tea Grass Jelly Anti-oxidant Serum
This hydrating serum is packed with antioxidants that protect skin from free radicals as well as black tea and grass jelly to moisturize and protect skin. The quick-absorbing, formula helps plump and firm your complexion with an anti-aging effect, and it hydrates and nourishes, prepping your skin for perfect makeup application.

10% Fruit Acids Apple Enzyme Resurfacing Serum
This regenerative serum is made with skin-brightening licorice, kojic acid from sake (fermented rice), sugar alpha hydroxy acid, beet lactic acid and various fruit enzymes to resurface skin. !0% of these glow- enhancing actives work together to brighten and even skin tone, speed cellular turnover for smoother skin, and help minimize the appearance of pores.

Watermelon + Cucumber Hydration Kit>
An ultra-hydrating, long-lasting trio that plumps and reduces the signs of aging with watermelon and cucumber waters, hyaluronic acid (from sweet potatoes), and polyglutamic acids (from natto beans). This kit features our Watermelon Cucumber Water Locking Mist, Watermelon Cucumber Water Locking Moisturizer, and Watermelon Cucumber Water Locking Serum.

Bakuchiol Moisturizer
This antioxidant rich, natural retinol alternative, packs a gentle but powerful punch to soften and hydrate the skin. Formulated with deeply hydrating hyaluronic acid and squalane, this powerful botanical stimulates cellular turnover, boosts collagen production, lightens age and sun spots while lessening the appearance of lines and wrinkles.

Lavender Niacinamide Pore Minimizer Tonique
This pore minimizing tonique cleans and purifies pores to lessen the appearance of facial pores, lines, and wrinkles, while reducing inflammation, increasing firmness, and evening the skin tone.

Multi-Vitamin Healthy Hair Leave-In Conditioner
This leave-in conditioner revives dry, damaged hair, and helps prevent future damage all in this replenishing hydrator. This weightless leave-in treatment detangles, smooths, and enhances shine.

Multi-Vitamin Healthy Hair De-Frizz Serum
This de-frizz serum helps banish frizz and flyaways with this hydrating, yet lightweight serum that’s fortified with nourishing vitamin E and other hair and scalp beneficial vitamins to repair and protect.

As you may have discovered, pre-cycling is very important to us, and we hope with these details, is significant to you, too. Pre-cycling is a huge part of creating and maintaining a sustainable world for humanity. More than recycling and reusing, pre-cycling cuts off waste and energy use before it happens, making it one of the most effective tools we have in the fight against climate change.

Don’t be intimidated by trying to pre-cycle perfectly. Any effort is better than none-at-all! Pre-cycling is making a conscious effort to do things in a sustainable way that does not create waste. This may be difficult to remember at first, but the more often it is done, the more likely it will become a habit.

The practice of incorporating strategies such as purchasing recycled goods, repurposing unused surplus packaging, pre-cycling, and supporting sustainable organic makeup brands by incorporating them into your daily life brings you closer to the goal of creating a more sustainable world. At 100% PURE, we see the beloved pre-cycling process as an everyday way of seeing the world and making sure we have a positive environmental impact for now and for future generations.