Water and Plastics Don't Mix:
Two Sermons Given on Committee for Ecology & Social Justice (CESA) Sunday
February 13, 2017
By Barbara Hale and Mary Ann Adams
at The Brookfield Unitarian Universalist Church
Two Truths
by Barbara Hale
We human beings are a cantankerous lot. We disagree with each other about pretty much everything. The last U.S. election is a prime example of that. Get three people together in a room and you could well have a very lively and not always friendly discussion about politics. Opinions come in as many flavors as there are people.
And what is true and what isn’t true is often the subject of much controversy – a phenomenon that was also widely discussed, tweeted and shouted about in this last election and since.
And in reality, these days it may well be accurate to say that it can be difficult to know what really is true. There is so much information available for perusal and digestion.
The particular question of “How do we know if something is true?” is one that Ross Pomeroy asks and answers on the website: Real Clear Science. He says:
“How do we know if something is true?
“It seems like a simple enough question. We know something is true if it is in accordance with measurable reality. But just five hundred years ago, this seemingly self-evident premise was not common thinking.
“Instead, for much of recorded history, truth was rooted in scholasticism. We knew something was true because great thinkers and authorities said it was true. At the insistence of powerful institutions like the Catholic Church, dogma was defended as the ultimate source of wisdom.”
But, he admits, times have changed. Most of us now do believe that what is absolutely true HAS to be in accordance with measurable reality. All else is opinion or belief.[1]
In spite of that, some believe that we were created by a supreme being and we are all here for his purpose. They accept this as fact, as an unassailable truth. While others believe that humanity has evolved through a natural process and they won’t be swayed from this belief. Some take it as fact that sexual orientation is chosen not inherent. And there are many who disagree with this premise. There are those who believe that climate change has little to do with human activity in spite of scientific evidence to the contrary and those who believe that humans contribute greatly to global warming. Who, in these examples, is telling the truth? For many, the truth in these situations is perfectly clear even if those who believe the exact opposite also have no doubt as to the veracity of their belief.
But I am not here today to discuss or challenge any of these particular subjects. Right now, it is only my mission to argue that beliefs as well as opinions come in many flavors and what is truth is sometimes very hard to discern in this age of mega-information.
Having said that, I am going to make a true statement here and now. A truly true statement. This is definitely not an “Alternative Fact.” And I challenge anyone here or anyone outside of these walls regardless of their religious and political beliefs to disagree with me and I would ask them to defend their belief. This statement is actually not mine, it was made by the poet Wendell Berry and it is this: “The Earth is what we all have in common.”
“The Earth is what we all have in common.” No one can deny this. Not one single human being. There can be no doubt that it is true that we are – every single human who is now alive, every single human who has ever lived and every single human who will be born in the foreseeable future – we are all dependent on this small blue planet for our corporeal lives. This statement is absolutely “in accordance with measurable reality.” The Earth is what we all have in common. Amen.
Now, I am going to go out on a limb here and make another statement that I believe is absolutely true and I defy anyone to disagree. That is: Water is life.
In other words, no human can survive on this Earth, our common home, without potable water.
Of course, we all know this innately, but do you know what actually happens to one’s body when it is deprived of water?
After some research on the internet, I found many sources that confirmed that our human bodies are made up of approximately 60 to 70% water. We can survive weeks without food, but we can only survive 5 to 7 days without water. If you don’t believe me, try it.
According to Mitchell Moffit and Gregory Brown of the Asap SCIENCE website, water “as the universal solvent, … carries nutrients and hormones to the body, regulates body temperature, cushions the joints, and provides lubricants in our eyes.” But since we produce about 1.5 liters of urine every day, we absolutely need to replace that liquid in the body to prevent the body from shutting down.
When we don’t drink water or certain other water-based liquids for a few hours, we begin to experience the initial signs of dehydration such as dry mouth, which is followed by dark urine with a strong odor. This signals the body’s attempt to conserve more fluids.
With one or two days of no fluids, we stop peeing altogether, have trouble swallowing, suffer from muscle spasms, and are more likely to experience nausea. The attention to digestion does not become a priority as victims of dehydration become delirious and begin to suffer from severe brain malfunction. Blood flow stops flowing to the skin and reduces heat loss. This increases core body temperature, which results in giving the body a bluish tint. Within three to five days, say Moffit and Brown, our organs and brains shut down and then, within 5 to 7 days, we die.[2]
This is how important potable water is to each and every human being on the face of this Earth, our only home, our common home. Water IS life. And yet, for many, the protection and distribution of clean drinking water seems to be a very low priority or one that seems to be a valid and complete right only for the few who have money and power.
A National Geographic article called Freshwater Crisis speaks to this issue:
“Water scarcity is an abstract concept to many and a stark reality for others. It is the result of myriad environmental, political, economic, and social forces.”
To complicate this issue, potable, fresh water “makes up a very small fraction of all water on the planet. While nearly 70 percent of the world is covered by water, only 2.5 percent of it is fresh. The rest is saline and ocean-based. Even then, just 1 percent of our freshwater is easily accessible, with much of it trapped in glaciers and snowfields. In essence, only 0.007 percent of the planet's water is available to fuel and feed its 6.8 billion people.
“Due to geography, climate, engineering, regulation, and competition for resources, some regions seem relatively flush with freshwater, while others face drought and debilitating pollution. In much of the developing world, clean water is either hard to come by or a commodity that requires laborious work or significant currency to obtain.”[3]
But access to clean drinking water is not just a Third World problem. The state of potable water in this country has been much in the news the last couple of years with the tragic pollution problem in the Flint, Michigan water supply, with reports of our crumbling infrastructure, with the ongoing drought in much of the country, with predictions of rising water prices that will impact most those who can afford it the least, with reports that fracking has a negative impact on water supplies and with the recent and renewed protests against the oil pipeline at Standing Rock.
Unfortunately, I don’t have time here to talk about all the possible ways that our water supplies are in jeopardy and what we can do about it. This is where our friend Google will help if you are interested in studying the issue further. Google things like “lead in our water supply,” chromium 6, 4-methylcyclohexane methanol or MCHM, toxic coal ash, “pharmaceuticals in our water supply,” or polyfluoroalkyl and perfluoroalkyl substances or PFAS or simply “affordable water may soon dry up” and the list goes on.
But can we agree today that Water is life and further that the access to potable drinking water should be a human right simply for that reason?
I am going to do something right now that I rarely do and that is share a quote from the Bible. It is from Mark 12: verse 31. And it goes:
Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.
Even an old humanist like me can get behind the second part of that quote. “Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.” That is actually the basis of my personal belief system. But what does it mean to love your neighbor?
Canadian writer, Margaret Atwood suggests, "To love your neighbor, you have to love the air in your neighbor's lungs. You have to love the water that your neighbor drinks. And you have to love the purity of the food your neighbor is eating. And all of those are the attachment of your neighbor to the environment. The environment is not out there, it's in us. Right now every time you breathe in, that's the environment inside you."
And I would add that every time you take a sip of water, that’s the environment inside you.
Let’s love our neighbors and do what we can to make sure they have potable water because water is life.
Plastics and Water Don’t Mix
by Mary Ann Adams
This is part two of the CESA sermon. Barb spoke to our needs for fresh water, I am going to talk about our Oceans. And PLASTIC. Our oceans have become the easy answer to waste removal. Throw it in the ocean. It will go away. But…. It doesn’t. IT WON’T GO AWAY… In researching articles for this sermon, I came across some staggering facts:
Each year 8 million TONS of plastic are “disposed” of ..thrown into the world’s oceans by garbage barges. Visualize your favorite beach on Cape Cod and seeing a municipal dump truck pulling up to the beach and dumping its contents into the ocean once every minute. Sickening, isn’t it.
Once in the ocean, these floating pieces of plastic break down into tiny pieces, and are eaten by fish and sea birds. It’s bad enough that plastic has no nourishment, but it also is made up of chemicals that leach into the bodies of these animals. 90% of seabirds have plastic pieces in their stomachs. Fish who eat these bits of indigestible plastic and then are harvested for human consumption expose people to chemicals like BPA, phthalates, pesticides and PCBs. These chemicals can contribute to an array of cancers and physiological disorders.
Around the world we use over 300 million tons of NEW plastic every year. Half of this --150 million tons… we use just once, and usually for less than 12 minutes. Think about those fast food chain plastic cups, that case of water bottles you have in the car, the plastic inside of plastic inside of plastic that contains almost everything we buy, from egg cartons to individually wrapped cheeses slices, to that crazy packaging that takes a chainsaw and a lot of profanity to get open. You know THOSE packages.
Although we in the United States, and many other countries, DO have recycling opportunities, China, Indonesia Thailand and Vietnam are known to be the heavy contributors to the ocean pollution problem. Some accounts state that these countries contribute up to 50% of the world ocean pollution due to the simple fact that they don’t recycle.
OK… I have beaten you up enough with these horrible details. Now, what can we do to slow down this problem. How can the people of the earth and their countries stem the leakage of waste into the ocean when it’s coming from so many sources? The Ocean Conservancy report suggests five shut off "levers": 1) developing waste collection services, 2) closing the leakage points within the collection system, 3) gasification , 4) incineration of waste, and 5) recycling facilities. The average general waste collection rate in the countries I mentioned earlier is barely above 40%--meaning the majority of waste ends up as litter. Just by expanding collection systems and plugging up their “leaking” points, the report says plastics pollution could be cut up to 50% by 2020.
It's not just an environmentalist's pipe dream. Coca-Cola and Dow Chemical, along with some other multinational companies, have joined forces with the Ocean Conservancy to fight ocean pollution. Dow Packaging and Specialty Plastics' global sustainability director noted in a press release: “We’re committed to working toward a future of a plastic-free ocean. Companies don’t make plastic with the intent of it ending up in the ocean, and we acknowledge the strong role industry must play in order to help eliminate ocean plastic waste by 2035.”
Andreas Merkl of Ocean Conservancy, emphasized that countries can't recycle their way out of the problem. And this is a fact that I was surprised to hear. Only about 20% of the waste is valuable enough to be worth recycling: the rest, unglamorously, needs to be sent to sanitary landfills or waste-to-energy plants. "You have to concentrate on the fundamentals of waste management," he says. And while building landfills and incinerators across these developing countries might not be pretty, it's far more environmentally friendly than letting waste slide into the world's oceans.
So. Back to basics, here are things we, the people in this church, can do at the Grass Roots level to decrease plastic consumption. Here are ways we can incorporate our 7th principle, into our daily lives. Our 7th principle tells us to respect the interdependent web of all existence.
So the best thing we can do to protect our waterways is try to keep as much plastic as possible out of the waste stream in the first place. The good news? There are many small ways you can have a big impact
1. Wean yourself off disposable plastics.
Ninety percent of the plastic items in our daily lives are used once and then chucked: grocery bags, water bottles, plastic wrap, disposable cutlery, straws, coffee-cup lids. Take note of how often you rely on these products and replace them with reusable versions. It only takes a few times of bringing your own bags to the store, silverware to the office, or travel mug to Starbucks before it becomes habit.
2. Stop buying water.
Each year, close to 20 billion disposable plastic bottles are tossed in the trash. Carry a reusable bottle in your bag, and you’ll never be caught having to resort to a Poland Spring or Evian again. If you’re nervous about the quality of your local tap water, look for a model with a built-in filter.
3. Boycott microbeads.
Those little plastic scrubbers found in so many beauty products—facial scrubs, toothpaste, body washes—might look harmless, but their tiny size allows them to slip through water-treatment plants. Unfortunately, they also look just like food to some marine animals. Opt for products with natural exfoliants, like oatmeal or salt, instead.
4. Cook more.
Not only is it healthier, but making your own meals doesn’t involve takeout containers or doggy bags. For those times when you do order in or eat out, tell the establishment you don’t need any plastic cutlery or, for some serious extra credit, bring your own food-storage containers to restaurants for leftovers.
5. Purchase items secondhand.
New toys and electronic gadgets, especially, come with all kinds of plastic packaging—from those frustrating hard-to-crack shells to twisty ties. Search the shelves of thrift stores, neighborhood garage sales, or online postings for items that are just as good when previously used. You’ll save yourself a few bucks, too.
6. Recycle (duh).
It seems obvious, but we’re not doing a great job of it. For example, less than 14 percent of plastic packaging is recycled. Confused about what can and can’t go in the bin? Check out the number on the bottom of the container. Most beverage and liquid cleaner bottles will be #1 (PET), which is commonly accepted by most curbside recycling companies. Containers marked #2 (HDPE; typically slightly heavier-duty bottles for milk, juice, and laundry detergent) and #5 (PP; plastic cutlery, yogurt and margarine tubs, ketchup bottles) are also recyclable in some areas. For the specifics on your area, check out Earth911.org’s recycling directory.
7. Support a bag tax or ban.
Urge your elected officials to follow the lead of those in San Francisco, Chicago, and close to 150 other cities and counties by introducing or supporting legislation that would make plastic-bag use less desirable.
8. Buy in bulk.
Single-serving yogurts, travel-size toiletries, tiny packages of nuts—consider the product-to-packaging ratio of items you tend to buy often and select the bigger container instead of buying several smaller ones over time.
9. Bring your own garment bag to the dry cleaner.
Invest in a zippered fabric bag and request that your cleaned items be returned in it instead of sheathed in plastic. (And while you’re at it, make sure you’re frequenting a dry cleaner that skips the perc, a toxic chemical found in some cleaning solvents.)
10. Put pressure on manufacturers.
Though we can make a difference through our own habits, corporations obviously have a much bigger footprint. If you believe a company could be smarter about its packaging, make your voice heard. Write a letter, send a tweet, or spend your consumer dollars with a more sustainable earth friendly company.
Yes, we are proposing that you do something to help the planet… We wouldn’t be a CESA committee if we didn’t. It’s not a lecture… it’s a reminder that we all have to take conscientious steps to make this a daily routine. And if you bring a stainless steel coffee thermos to work, bravo, you’ve just done something. If you cook a meal once in a while on the weekend, instead of buying take out, and then take some to work in a reusable container on Monday, you have once again done something. It’s the little things that we each do that accumulate within the larger community that continue to make the difference. So, go buy a cloth bag and keep it in your car. And the next time you are at the grocery store packing food into it you can look at it and say, YES, I just helped the planet. Blessed be.
Information for this sermon was gathered from the Ocean Conservancy, SES: Sea Education Society, Forbes Magazine and McKinsey Center for Business and Environment, and http://www.earthtimes.org/pollution/plastic-contamination-atlantic-ocean/377
[1] http://www.realclearscience.com/blog/2016/07/how_do_we_know_what_is_true.html
[2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zCheAcpFkL8
[3] http://environment.nationalgeographic.com/freshwater/freshwater-crisis/
Two Sermons Given on Committee for Ecology & Social Justice (CESA) Sunday
February 13, 2017
By Barbara Hale and Mary Ann Adams
at The Brookfield Unitarian Universalist Church
Two Truths
by Barbara Hale
We human beings are a cantankerous lot. We disagree with each other about pretty much everything. The last U.S. election is a prime example of that. Get three people together in a room and you could well have a very lively and not always friendly discussion about politics. Opinions come in as many flavors as there are people.
And what is true and what isn’t true is often the subject of much controversy – a phenomenon that was also widely discussed, tweeted and shouted about in this last election and since.
And in reality, these days it may well be accurate to say that it can be difficult to know what really is true. There is so much information available for perusal and digestion.
The particular question of “How do we know if something is true?” is one that Ross Pomeroy asks and answers on the website: Real Clear Science. He says:
“How do we know if something is true?
“It seems like a simple enough question. We know something is true if it is in accordance with measurable reality. But just five hundred years ago, this seemingly self-evident premise was not common thinking.
“Instead, for much of recorded history, truth was rooted in scholasticism. We knew something was true because great thinkers and authorities said it was true. At the insistence of powerful institutions like the Catholic Church, dogma was defended as the ultimate source of wisdom.”
But, he admits, times have changed. Most of us now do believe that what is absolutely true HAS to be in accordance with measurable reality. All else is opinion or belief.[1]
In spite of that, some believe that we were created by a supreme being and we are all here for his purpose. They accept this as fact, as an unassailable truth. While others believe that humanity has evolved through a natural process and they won’t be swayed from this belief. Some take it as fact that sexual orientation is chosen not inherent. And there are many who disagree with this premise. There are those who believe that climate change has little to do with human activity in spite of scientific evidence to the contrary and those who believe that humans contribute greatly to global warming. Who, in these examples, is telling the truth? For many, the truth in these situations is perfectly clear even if those who believe the exact opposite also have no doubt as to the veracity of their belief.
But I am not here today to discuss or challenge any of these particular subjects. Right now, it is only my mission to argue that beliefs as well as opinions come in many flavors and what is truth is sometimes very hard to discern in this age of mega-information.
Having said that, I am going to make a true statement here and now. A truly true statement. This is definitely not an “Alternative Fact.” And I challenge anyone here or anyone outside of these walls regardless of their religious and political beliefs to disagree with me and I would ask them to defend their belief. This statement is actually not mine, it was made by the poet Wendell Berry and it is this: “The Earth is what we all have in common.”
“The Earth is what we all have in common.” No one can deny this. Not one single human being. There can be no doubt that it is true that we are – every single human who is now alive, every single human who has ever lived and every single human who will be born in the foreseeable future – we are all dependent on this small blue planet for our corporeal lives. This statement is absolutely “in accordance with measurable reality.” The Earth is what we all have in common. Amen.
Now, I am going to go out on a limb here and make another statement that I believe is absolutely true and I defy anyone to disagree. That is: Water is life.
In other words, no human can survive on this Earth, our common home, without potable water.
Of course, we all know this innately, but do you know what actually happens to one’s body when it is deprived of water?
After some research on the internet, I found many sources that confirmed that our human bodies are made up of approximately 60 to 70% water. We can survive weeks without food, but we can only survive 5 to 7 days without water. If you don’t believe me, try it.
According to Mitchell Moffit and Gregory Brown of the Asap SCIENCE website, water “as the universal solvent, … carries nutrients and hormones to the body, regulates body temperature, cushions the joints, and provides lubricants in our eyes.” But since we produce about 1.5 liters of urine every day, we absolutely need to replace that liquid in the body to prevent the body from shutting down.
When we don’t drink water or certain other water-based liquids for a few hours, we begin to experience the initial signs of dehydration such as dry mouth, which is followed by dark urine with a strong odor. This signals the body’s attempt to conserve more fluids.
With one or two days of no fluids, we stop peeing altogether, have trouble swallowing, suffer from muscle spasms, and are more likely to experience nausea. The attention to digestion does not become a priority as victims of dehydration become delirious and begin to suffer from severe brain malfunction. Blood flow stops flowing to the skin and reduces heat loss. This increases core body temperature, which results in giving the body a bluish tint. Within three to five days, say Moffit and Brown, our organs and brains shut down and then, within 5 to 7 days, we die.[2]
This is how important potable water is to each and every human being on the face of this Earth, our only home, our common home. Water IS life. And yet, for many, the protection and distribution of clean drinking water seems to be a very low priority or one that seems to be a valid and complete right only for the few who have money and power.
A National Geographic article called Freshwater Crisis speaks to this issue:
“Water scarcity is an abstract concept to many and a stark reality for others. It is the result of myriad environmental, political, economic, and social forces.”
To complicate this issue, potable, fresh water “makes up a very small fraction of all water on the planet. While nearly 70 percent of the world is covered by water, only 2.5 percent of it is fresh. The rest is saline and ocean-based. Even then, just 1 percent of our freshwater is easily accessible, with much of it trapped in glaciers and snowfields. In essence, only 0.007 percent of the planet's water is available to fuel and feed its 6.8 billion people.
“Due to geography, climate, engineering, regulation, and competition for resources, some regions seem relatively flush with freshwater, while others face drought and debilitating pollution. In much of the developing world, clean water is either hard to come by or a commodity that requires laborious work or significant currency to obtain.”[3]
But access to clean drinking water is not just a Third World problem. The state of potable water in this country has been much in the news the last couple of years with the tragic pollution problem in the Flint, Michigan water supply, with reports of our crumbling infrastructure, with the ongoing drought in much of the country, with predictions of rising water prices that will impact most those who can afford it the least, with reports that fracking has a negative impact on water supplies and with the recent and renewed protests against the oil pipeline at Standing Rock.
Unfortunately, I don’t have time here to talk about all the possible ways that our water supplies are in jeopardy and what we can do about it. This is where our friend Google will help if you are interested in studying the issue further. Google things like “lead in our water supply,” chromium 6, 4-methylcyclohexane methanol or MCHM, toxic coal ash, “pharmaceuticals in our water supply,” or polyfluoroalkyl and perfluoroalkyl substances or PFAS or simply “affordable water may soon dry up” and the list goes on.
But can we agree today that Water is life and further that the access to potable drinking water should be a human right simply for that reason?
I am going to do something right now that I rarely do and that is share a quote from the Bible. It is from Mark 12: verse 31. And it goes:
Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.
Even an old humanist like me can get behind the second part of that quote. “Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.” That is actually the basis of my personal belief system. But what does it mean to love your neighbor?
Canadian writer, Margaret Atwood suggests, "To love your neighbor, you have to love the air in your neighbor's lungs. You have to love the water that your neighbor drinks. And you have to love the purity of the food your neighbor is eating. And all of those are the attachment of your neighbor to the environment. The environment is not out there, it's in us. Right now every time you breathe in, that's the environment inside you."
And I would add that every time you take a sip of water, that’s the environment inside you.
Let’s love our neighbors and do what we can to make sure they have potable water because water is life.
Plastics and Water Don’t Mix
by Mary Ann Adams
This is part two of the CESA sermon. Barb spoke to our needs for fresh water, I am going to talk about our Oceans. And PLASTIC. Our oceans have become the easy answer to waste removal. Throw it in the ocean. It will go away. But…. It doesn’t. IT WON’T GO AWAY… In researching articles for this sermon, I came across some staggering facts:
Each year 8 million TONS of plastic are “disposed” of ..thrown into the world’s oceans by garbage barges. Visualize your favorite beach on Cape Cod and seeing a municipal dump truck pulling up to the beach and dumping its contents into the ocean once every minute. Sickening, isn’t it.
Once in the ocean, these floating pieces of plastic break down into tiny pieces, and are eaten by fish and sea birds. It’s bad enough that plastic has no nourishment, but it also is made up of chemicals that leach into the bodies of these animals. 90% of seabirds have plastic pieces in their stomachs. Fish who eat these bits of indigestible plastic and then are harvested for human consumption expose people to chemicals like BPA, phthalates, pesticides and PCBs. These chemicals can contribute to an array of cancers and physiological disorders.
Around the world we use over 300 million tons of NEW plastic every year. Half of this --150 million tons… we use just once, and usually for less than 12 minutes. Think about those fast food chain plastic cups, that case of water bottles you have in the car, the plastic inside of plastic inside of plastic that contains almost everything we buy, from egg cartons to individually wrapped cheeses slices, to that crazy packaging that takes a chainsaw and a lot of profanity to get open. You know THOSE packages.
Although we in the United States, and many other countries, DO have recycling opportunities, China, Indonesia Thailand and Vietnam are known to be the heavy contributors to the ocean pollution problem. Some accounts state that these countries contribute up to 50% of the world ocean pollution due to the simple fact that they don’t recycle.
OK… I have beaten you up enough with these horrible details. Now, what can we do to slow down this problem. How can the people of the earth and their countries stem the leakage of waste into the ocean when it’s coming from so many sources? The Ocean Conservancy report suggests five shut off "levers": 1) developing waste collection services, 2) closing the leakage points within the collection system, 3) gasification , 4) incineration of waste, and 5) recycling facilities. The average general waste collection rate in the countries I mentioned earlier is barely above 40%--meaning the majority of waste ends up as litter. Just by expanding collection systems and plugging up their “leaking” points, the report says plastics pollution could be cut up to 50% by 2020.
It's not just an environmentalist's pipe dream. Coca-Cola and Dow Chemical, along with some other multinational companies, have joined forces with the Ocean Conservancy to fight ocean pollution. Dow Packaging and Specialty Plastics' global sustainability director noted in a press release: “We’re committed to working toward a future of a plastic-free ocean. Companies don’t make plastic with the intent of it ending up in the ocean, and we acknowledge the strong role industry must play in order to help eliminate ocean plastic waste by 2035.”
Andreas Merkl of Ocean Conservancy, emphasized that countries can't recycle their way out of the problem. And this is a fact that I was surprised to hear. Only about 20% of the waste is valuable enough to be worth recycling: the rest, unglamorously, needs to be sent to sanitary landfills or waste-to-energy plants. "You have to concentrate on the fundamentals of waste management," he says. And while building landfills and incinerators across these developing countries might not be pretty, it's far more environmentally friendly than letting waste slide into the world's oceans.
So. Back to basics, here are things we, the people in this church, can do at the Grass Roots level to decrease plastic consumption. Here are ways we can incorporate our 7th principle, into our daily lives. Our 7th principle tells us to respect the interdependent web of all existence.
So the best thing we can do to protect our waterways is try to keep as much plastic as possible out of the waste stream in the first place. The good news? There are many small ways you can have a big impact
1. Wean yourself off disposable plastics.
Ninety percent of the plastic items in our daily lives are used once and then chucked: grocery bags, water bottles, plastic wrap, disposable cutlery, straws, coffee-cup lids. Take note of how often you rely on these products and replace them with reusable versions. It only takes a few times of bringing your own bags to the store, silverware to the office, or travel mug to Starbucks before it becomes habit.
2. Stop buying water.
Each year, close to 20 billion disposable plastic bottles are tossed in the trash. Carry a reusable bottle in your bag, and you’ll never be caught having to resort to a Poland Spring or Evian again. If you’re nervous about the quality of your local tap water, look for a model with a built-in filter.
3. Boycott microbeads.
Those little plastic scrubbers found in so many beauty products—facial scrubs, toothpaste, body washes—might look harmless, but their tiny size allows them to slip through water-treatment plants. Unfortunately, they also look just like food to some marine animals. Opt for products with natural exfoliants, like oatmeal or salt, instead.
4. Cook more.
Not only is it healthier, but making your own meals doesn’t involve takeout containers or doggy bags. For those times when you do order in or eat out, tell the establishment you don’t need any plastic cutlery or, for some serious extra credit, bring your own food-storage containers to restaurants for leftovers.
5. Purchase items secondhand.
New toys and electronic gadgets, especially, come with all kinds of plastic packaging—from those frustrating hard-to-crack shells to twisty ties. Search the shelves of thrift stores, neighborhood garage sales, or online postings for items that are just as good when previously used. You’ll save yourself a few bucks, too.
6. Recycle (duh).
It seems obvious, but we’re not doing a great job of it. For example, less than 14 percent of plastic packaging is recycled. Confused about what can and can’t go in the bin? Check out the number on the bottom of the container. Most beverage and liquid cleaner bottles will be #1 (PET), which is commonly accepted by most curbside recycling companies. Containers marked #2 (HDPE; typically slightly heavier-duty bottles for milk, juice, and laundry detergent) and #5 (PP; plastic cutlery, yogurt and margarine tubs, ketchup bottles) are also recyclable in some areas. For the specifics on your area, check out Earth911.org’s recycling directory.
7. Support a bag tax or ban.
Urge your elected officials to follow the lead of those in San Francisco, Chicago, and close to 150 other cities and counties by introducing or supporting legislation that would make plastic-bag use less desirable.
8. Buy in bulk.
Single-serving yogurts, travel-size toiletries, tiny packages of nuts—consider the product-to-packaging ratio of items you tend to buy often and select the bigger container instead of buying several smaller ones over time.
9. Bring your own garment bag to the dry cleaner.
Invest in a zippered fabric bag and request that your cleaned items be returned in it instead of sheathed in plastic. (And while you’re at it, make sure you’re frequenting a dry cleaner that skips the perc, a toxic chemical found in some cleaning solvents.)
10. Put pressure on manufacturers.
Though we can make a difference through our own habits, corporations obviously have a much bigger footprint. If you believe a company could be smarter about its packaging, make your voice heard. Write a letter, send a tweet, or spend your consumer dollars with a more sustainable earth friendly company.
Yes, we are proposing that you do something to help the planet… We wouldn’t be a CESA committee if we didn’t. It’s not a lecture… it’s a reminder that we all have to take conscientious steps to make this a daily routine. And if you bring a stainless steel coffee thermos to work, bravo, you’ve just done something. If you cook a meal once in a while on the weekend, instead of buying take out, and then take some to work in a reusable container on Monday, you have once again done something. It’s the little things that we each do that accumulate within the larger community that continue to make the difference. So, go buy a cloth bag and keep it in your car. And the next time you are at the grocery store packing food into it you can look at it and say, YES, I just helped the planet. Blessed be.
Information for this sermon was gathered from the Ocean Conservancy, SES: Sea Education Society, Forbes Magazine and McKinsey Center for Business and Environment, and http://www.earthtimes.org/pollution/plastic-contamination-atlantic-ocean/377
[1] http://www.realclearscience.com/blog/2016/07/how_do_we_know_what_is_true.html
[2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zCheAcpFkL8
[3] http://environment.nationalgeographic.com/freshwater/freshwater-crisis/
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