The Re-Use Revolution: Toward a Lifestyle of Caring

 

by Diane Waddell

An advocacy campaign — and modeling a lifestyle — of decreasing the use of plastic (especially single-use plastic) offers an opportunity for faith groups to partner with secular groups/city/county government. Working at the local and neighborhood level is an important way to make a difference in caring for Creation, caring for neighbors, and for welcoming future generations with the gift of a safer, healthier, cleaner planet.

 

A group of us (who are now a part of the JOY New Worshiping Community) organized Ecumenical Eco-Justice of St. Joseph (Missouri), an advocacy group based on the principles of the 2015 encyclical, Laudato Si, “On Care for Our Common Home.” We noted that the city had no environmental committee, so we wrote a resolution for the mayor to consider empowering EEJ to help set up such a committee. The city environmental committee was formed in 2018 and both groups have been active ever since. Our work for Earth Care is similar although the terminology is different — Creation Justice for the faith group and environmental sustainability for the city group.

 

In time, and after many other projects, it became apparent that work toward educating about the devastating effects of plastic was vital. Our groups needed to become educated themselves, so one of the leaders enrolled in an excellent semester-long class called Beyond Plastic Pollution through Bennington College, VT. After several other online workshops, EEJ was able to partner with the national organization, Beyond Plastics and became the only representative in the northwest Missouri area.

 

EEJ is working with the city environmental committee to share, through workshops, meetings, and other community events, about switching from plastics to reusable items. One of the City committee’s goals is to “Refuse, Renew, Repurpose, Rethink, Reduce, Reuse, Recycle.” The committee obtained a grant to purchase reusable water bottles and shopping bags to distribute to groups who take time to hear about the importance of the reduction of single-use plastics.

 

This year’s theme (also from Beyond Plastics) is the Re-use Revolution, which encourages citizens to change their habits of using single-use plastic toward reusable items, avoiding purchasing items with plastic wrapping, and to bring reusable utensils, take-out containers, and drink containers when heading out to eat. EEJ will be hosting meetings with educational videos, PowerPoint, and more to share about the toxic effects of plastic in cracking, manufacturing, using, and “recycling” or trashing plastic.

 

“Recycling, while very worthwhile for items made from metal, glass, and paper, is, unfortunately, largely a myth when it comes to anything made from plastic. At least 91% of all plastic will end up being buried, burned or floating in ever smaller pieces in our oceans and waterways. Reuse is a simple, commonsense, sustainable solution that we all need to embrace.” (Beyond Plastics website*)

 

          Together, we can and must shift our throw-away, wasteful culture to one which understands that Earth is Sacred, water is sacred, our bodies are sacred… towards a culture which will send the message of love and nurturing to multiple generations to come.

 

 Diane Waddell is a leader in the JOY New Worshiping Community, Ecumenical Eco-Justice and the St. Joseph Sustainable Environment Advisory Committee.