Imagine never needing to sort through your recycling, separating glass, cardboard, plastic, and metal. It’s not that you would just ignore recycling altogether; instead, you’d be shopping at places that have adopted the idea of precycling, a way to eliminate waste before it’s even created. By providing items in their pure form without additional cardboard, wrapping, or packaging, there’s simply nothing to throw out later.
We’ve seen some interesting designs that seem to lean in this direction. Ooho!, for example, is essentially a blob of water that you can just pop into your mouth, no plastic water bottle required. The Dieline has also featured Tomorrow Machine, a design studio creating food items with packaging comprised of caramelized sugar coated with wax, which then melts when it is used and comes in contact with water. There’s also Stonyfield’s Frozen Yogurt Pearls, which are scoops of organic frozen yogurt enveloped in delicious edible skins.
None of these designs create trash or recycling, but is precycling something that you can expect to see in full force in the States anytime soon? In a recent article, The New York Times asks if Americans are ready for this notion.
