Plastic Bags!

In various places all over this country, people are waking up to the problem of plastics bags—namely that they are ubiquitous, end up in trees and water ways, and just about never break down. News of taxes or bans on plastic bags is spreading, and some people, who are trying to be more earth friendly or who want to prepare for the inevitable in their communities, are attempting to go plastic bag-less. That means you have to remember to bring your own reusable bags to the grocery store and actually use them.

Why are plastic bags so bad? Four to five trillion plastic bags are manufactured each year. Americans use over 380 billion polyethylene bags per year. Americans throw away approximately 100 billion polyethylene bags per year. Of those 100 trillion plastic bags, 1% is recycled. It takes 1000 years for polyethylene bags to break down.

So what can you do?

• Consider carrying your own reusable shopping bags. Just in time for the holidays, Target will give customers a 5 cent discount for every reusable bag they use to pack their purchases.
  
• If you do take home plastic bags from the store, be sure to recycle it! Every major grocery store has a bin up front for you to drop off your plastic bags, no matter where you received them.

Please remember, “All creation is the Lord’s, and we are responsible for the ways in which we use and abuse it.” - Excerpted from the current UMC Social Principle, “The Natural World.”

Easy Recycling Tips

The average U.S citizen generates 5 pounds of waste per day or 1,825 pounds per year. According to the Environmental Protection Agency approximately 30% of our waste is containers and packaging. So 600 pounds are headed for the trash! That cardboard box can be recycled and the plastic bag can be recycled. Close The Loop. Recycle it and keep it out of the Landfill.

Newspaper—Recycling a four foot high stack of newspapers saves one tree from being harvested! Although these trees are grown for paper production, recycling paper consumes fewer resources (water and electricity) and produces less air pollution. Just drop off your newspapers in the bin on the church parking lot.

Aluminum—Recycling one aluminum can saves enough energy to run a TV for three hours — or the equivalent of a half gallon of gasoline. An aluminum can that is thrown away will still be a can 500 years from now! Just drop off your cans in the bin on the church parking lot.

Light Bulbs– An ENERGY STAR qualified compact fluorescent light bulb (CFL) will save about $30 over its lifetime and pay for itself in about 6 months. It uses 75 percent less energy and lasts about 10 times longer than an incandescent bulb. To keep the mercury out of the landfill, you can drop off your old CFL bulbs at Home Depot and Lowes.

It is so easy to be a good steward of our environment!

Earth Care Column: “Be good stewards of the earth”

Did you ever wonder why it’s so important to recycle? Consider this: being environmentally "green" is more important than ever, and recycling is one of the simplest ways that we can protect our environment.

Recycling has the following benefits: It preserves natural resources, thus reducing the need to mine the earth for new raw materials ($208 million of reusable materials are dumped in Missouri landfills every year!) It saves energy by reducing the need to mine and refine new raw materials ( the energy needed to replace reusable materials dumped in Missouri landfills every year is enough to power 262,000 Missouri homes for a year; that’s about a $500 million energy bill!) It saves landfill space, which helps keep waste hauling rates lower (as local landfills fill up, haulers will have to take trash to landfills further away, thus increasing the cost of transporting each load.)

Recycling isn't just environmentally "green". The recycling and reuse industry is also a significant driver of economic activity in the St. Louis area, employing nearly 16,000 people with an annual payroll of $639,910,000.

This message has been brought to you by the Social Justice ministries

Plastic Pot Recycling - Summer 2009

The Plastic Pot Recycling collection at the Missouri Botanical Garden opened for the season on National Earth Day, April 22, 2009!

You can help reduce the amount of horticultural waste in landfills by recycling your plastic garden pots, polystyrene cell packs and trays at the Garden and other locations throughout St. Louis City and County.

Main Collection Site
April 22 -September 30, 2009
9 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Missouri Botanical Garden - Monsanto Center
4500 Shaw Boulevard
St. Louis MO 63110 [Map]
(314) 577-9441

Additional Collection Sites and details about what is done with the pots . . . http://www.mobot.org/plasticpotrecycling/default.asp

Earth Week Update #4 - Recycle

The average U.S. citizen generates 5 pounds of waste per day or 1,825 pounds per year. According to the Environmental Protection Agency approximately 30% of our waste is containers and packaging. So 600 pounds are headed for trash! That cardboard box can be recycled and the plastic bag can be recycled. Close The Loop. Recycle it and keep it out of the landfill. Some Quick Facts:

• Recycling and composting diverted nearly 70 million tons of material away from landfills and incinerators in 2000, up from 34 million tons in 1990-doubling in just 10 years.


• Every ton of paper that is recycled saves 17 trees.


• Recycling just one aluminum can is the equivalent of keeping a 100-watt light bulb burning for approximately four hours or having the television running for three hours.


• The energy we save when we recycle one glass bottle is enough to light a light bulb for four hours.


• Recycling benefits the air and water by creating a net reduction in ten major categories of air pollutants and eight major categories of water pollutants.

At LUMC we have dumpsters on the parking lot to simplify your recycling of paper and aluminum.

Recycling Light Bulbs
With lamps such as compact fluorescent lamps (CFLs), mercury content needs to be taken into consideration before disposal. Mercury is an extremely hazardous waste and is a major health concern when it comes in contact with humans and animals. In humans, mercury can cause brain and kidney damage. Place your CFL bulb in a plastic bag and drop them off at Home Depot or Lowes. Both have collection bins near Customer Service or the check out lanes.

City of St. Louis Recycling Program
Recycling is easy! The City of St. Louis offers twenty-six drop-off locations scattered throughout town. By taking just a few minutes each week to sort your recyclables, you can help to reduce waste and benefit the environment. Above and beyond recycling, you can reduce, reuse, and buy recycled. Use these pages to learn more about what you can do.
http://stlouis.missouri.org/citygov/recycle/

Web Innovations & Technology Services
For electronics recycling (and reuse) WITS has a great program. Also, most retailers will accept your old electronics when you purchase a new one, just ask.http://www.witsinc.org/EDay2009.html