Plastic Free July Prayer
Dear God,
Please give us the strength and determination to help protect the world you have created for us. As we continue to care for this world, we hope that as children of God, we can make our air, water, and food cleaner. Amen.
Knowledge
July’s editions of YLBG will be focused on Plastic Free July. Our Plastics Taskforce has sent letters to many asking for your participation. I hope you will join us by examining your plastic use and make a difference with your actions.
Next week, the Plastics Taskforce of our Dorothy Stang Initiative will be sending letters to area grocery store managers, offering ideas for encouraging their customers to choose alternative options to plastic bags. I must admit it is a different approach from my initial vision, which was much more … confrontational. Through the wisdom of the sisters, I am learning that building from the grassroots is the best approach. Inviting people to look seriously at the effects of each of our individual actions and decisions will hopefully lead more and more to act on a larger scale. Advocacy is the goal because only through large scale change will we make a true impact. However, finding your reason to advocate is important to sustain your energy for the long run. As motivation, we offered the following facts in our letter:
Americans annually use 100 billion plastic bags which have a lifetime of over 500 years. It requires 12 million barrels of oil to produce those 100 billion bags. These bags substantially add to the 15 million tons of mostly single-use plastic waste that pollutes our ocean each year.
These three facts alone are motivation for me! If you would like to join us in our letter writing, you can contact us at [email protected]
Action
A few PFJ options:
Personal:
How did you do in week 2 of the Plastic Free July Challenge? What can you change for week 3?
Professional:
How can you reduce or eliminate plastic where you work? How do you pack your lunch? Maybe eliminate zipper bags and cling wrap? Use containers and beeswax wraps.
In the World:
Our personal choices are important. But, large scale change will come when corporations and politicians are on board. Eliminating plastic bags is one easy thing we can do immediately. Advocating for a plastic bag ban in your state is a great cause!
Our own Plastics Taskforce is working on actions and solutions. [email protected]