May 20, 2010

Shop Until You Drop--Or At Least Until The Earth Does

Education Coordinator Tracy Bieger

“When man turns his back on the Creator’s plan, he provokes a disorder which has inevitable repercussions on the rest of the created order. If man is not at peace with God, then the earth itself cannot be at peace. The seriousness of ecological degradation lays bare the depth of man’s moral crisis...Simplicity, moderation, and discipline as well as the spirit of sacrifice must become a part of everyday life.” Pope John Paul II

Americans spend an average of 24 minutes a day shopping. We have shopping mentality engrained into our brains, but where does all that “stuff” go? We live in a disposable society, producing 4.5 lbs of trash per person daily. If you look at North America from space, the highest point on the eastern seaboard is a landfill. The average family in the world has no fewer than 125 items in their home. In America, the average is closer to 10,000! Then when we’re tired of our stuff, we toss it back to the earth, creating 1.5 billion tons of household solid waste each year. Over half of the electronics we import, are exported as waste to third world countries.

So what can we do to try to lessen our impact? A few simple things that can make a big impact:

Paper or Plastic? Choose the lesser of two evils here if you don’t have a reusable bag handy. Paper can hold more items, is more likely to be reused and more likely to be recycled.

Paper Towels: Buy paper towels that you can “select a size.” They may cost a little more, but in the long run will last longer, saving you money. If everyone in the U.S. decreased paper towel use by just 3 rolls per year, we would save 120,000 tons of waste!

Shoes: Americans buy 2.3 million shoes daily. Try to buy shoes only when you truly need to, and check into buying shoes made from recycled materials.

Christmas Trees: Many people assume artificial trees are the “greener” option. However, artificial trees are only used an average of six seasons, not to mention the energy used to produce, package, and ship them. A real tree provides environmental benefits as they grow, and can be recycled easily. In many instances, you are supporting a local tree farmer. Even if not local, if 10% of households considering an artificial tree purchase a live tree instead, it would save 44 million pounds of landfill waste in one year.

Cell Phones: Over 130 million cell phones are tossed every year, not including the estimated 500 million used cell phones just sitting around not being used. Currently, less than 1% of all cell phones are recycled. Donate your cell phone to a charity (Calvary has a basket in the narthex).

This is just scratching the surface, there are many very simple things you can do to help reduce our waste, and as you can see, it doesn’t have to involve major changes to your lifestyle.