Heather Claybrook wrote the article below which defines current recycling nomenclature. It's a fun read.
While most Missourians know what it means to recycle, they may not know of the various ways to do so, such as pre-cycling, free-cycling, up-cycling, down-cycling and e-cycling. Recycling expert Amy Hock says these green cycles can help you save money, make for a healthier environment and be a good teaching tool for children. For instance, the practice of not buying more than you need is called pre-cycling, she says.
"Buy what you need and use what you buy; that is a way of pre-cycling. It's about thinking before you make a purchase. Free-cycling is a term that is used when you give items away instead of throwing them away."
Up-cycling is creating useful items from recycled material; down-cycling is reusing a product for an alternative purpose to keep it out of the landfill; and E-cycling refers to the recycling of electronics. Hock says all you really need to remember are the three R's.
"They just need to keep remembering three words, it's reduce, reuse and recycle, and those three words can go a very long way."
Hock says any of the cycles of recycling can be used at home, school, office or wherever you find yourself to keep material out of landfills.