Prayer
Dear God,
Our earth is precious and is in need of gentleness and kindness upon facing climate change.
We pray for the environment and all of creation, the sky, land, sea and all living creatures.
May you protect all ecosystems and natural habitats, freeing them from harm and inhumane actions.
Protect the earth from plastic pollution keeping the earth in your loving care, in our common home, communities and everywhere. Help us to love, respect and restore creation.
St Francis of Assisi, Pray for us.
Amen.
(Francesca, Year 11)
Plastic-Free July Prayers
Knowledge
It’s difficult to be the wet blanket at a party! It is tough to tell the hard truth. But that is what I’ll be doing in this edition of YLBG. Earlier this week there was a story in the Cincinnati Enquire about the new recycling option available to many of us through curbside recycling. For $10 you can purchase a box of 20 special plastic bags at local Kroger stores. In those orange plastic bags, you can place plastic recycling that is not normally taken in your curbside bin. On the surface, this seems to be a great development.
This is where the tough truth part comes in. It’s never fun to talk about the inadequacies of plastic recycling, especially to those, like me, who have put so much effort into it.
Let me say that that recycling, even plastic recycling, has some role in managing our plastic pollution. But the concern is that offering these increased recycling opportunities will lull people into thinking that their plastic use does not have an impact on our climate. It most certainly does. The most important thing we must do is find alternatives to plastic everywhere and every time we can. Plastic recycling is only a very small part of the solution. Purchasing alternative plastic-free products is our first step. Advocating for laws that reduce or eliminate unnecessary plastic is our next step. There are things for which we have no alternative. Let those be the only plastic we use.
Action
Read about the realities of plastic recycling and how it is lulling us into a false sense of security about our carbon footprint.
Educate yourself on the amount of fossil fuel used in the production of plastic. You will see the broader picture of the true impact of plastic on climate change. There is an enormous amount of fossil fuel burned in both the production as well as the recycling of plastic.
Understand that no plastic is disposable! It will be on the planet far longer than several generations yet to be born. Even if it is recycled, it is still not disposed. Plastic can only be recycled so many times before it is too degraded to be recycled again. It then sits in a landfill or in our environment, breaking down into microplastics that affect our health and the health of our children. Microplastics have even been found to cross the placenta and have been found in the first bowel movements of newborns.