Plastic Calculator: “Knowledge is Power”

The famous adage “knowledge is power” has never been truer than in the case of global warming. As individual consumers, the vastness of climate change often makes taking action incredibly difficult. Moreover, most of the marketing surrounding being environmentally-friendly fails to provide tangible ways one can actually contribute to bettering the state of our environment. Here at Precycle, we hope to tackle this issue by empowering consumers to take control of their own environmental impact by providing them with the information they need to do so. With the launch of our plastic footprint calculator, we are one step closer to that goal.

Plastic is one of the largest contributors to non-biodegradable pollution across the world. Most plastic takes many years to break down. Therefore, when not disposed of properly, plastic can have an immensely negative impact on the environment as a whole. The total weight of plastic one imparts on the world is their “plastic footprint”. The plastic footprint includes all the plastic within the products one consumes as well as the packaging the products arrive in. Our brand new plastic footprint calculator gives consumers an educated estimate of the plastic they contribute based on various in-depth questions. Thus, by calculating your footprint with our technology, you will receive the valuable information you need to make the lifestyle changes that will decrease your personal contribution to global warming.

The ultimate goal of gaining knowledge about our plastic usage is to use our newfound information to discover ways to cut down our usage. However, some plastic usage is inevitable or simply too difficult to avoid. When this is the case, we want to provide individuals with an option that allows them to offset their plastic usage. This way even if one can’t commit to living a zero-plastic lifestyle they can still live a plastic-neutral lifestyle. So, how do we offset the plastic we can’t avoid? Currently, even in areas where recycling is engrained into the culture after our waste is separated, most of our recycling is exported to nations in low-income nations to be dealt with. However once there, a large amount of that recyclable waste ends up not actually being recycled. Instead, this waste sits in landfills or ends up being incinerated. Moreover, many of the workers who deal with this exported waste are subjugated to unfair wages and unethical working conditions. Precycle’s mission is to allow consumers to play a part in fixing this issue. Through our subscription-based plastic compensation model, consumers can use the information they received through their footprint calculation to figure out which plastic compensation plan suits their living patterns the most. After picking a plan that best suits one’s usage rates, we at Precycle use the funds gained from the plastic compensation contribution to provide resources to our recycling impact partner. By buying into this system, you as a consumer can guarantee that an equal amount of plastic is being removed from the environment as you are putting in. Therefore, although you may not be able to be “zero waste” you can still ensure you are contributing to a world in which waste is being dealt with in a more sustainable and ethical way.

The widespread global inaction surrounding the climate crisis can leave one feeling extremely disillusioned. However, individual actions can still play a big part in helping our environment. Giving up on our future is simply not an option. If knowledge truly is power, then take the first step to empowerment. Give calculating your plastic footprint a shot so that you can see what plastic action you can take in order to become an active part of the solution instead of an apathetic viewer of the problem.

Let’s do the math: Calculate at footprint.precycle.today