Environmental Guild
Recycling can be seen as another way to care for God’s creation. No doubt you have heard many times that making a conscious effort to reduce, reuse, and recycle our resources is good for the environment, but it is important to remember that these same efforts benefit people as well. With a little extra effort we can leave the world a better place for those who come after us while we continue to serve those around us.
To me, the example of Christ tells us that no good can come without sacrifice, and while we cannot hope to match the good He has done through His sacrifice, there are ways we can change how we live to improve our stewardship of the world’s resources.
The Environmental Guild is working to suggest ways, beyond just recycling, to balance the needs of the St. David’s community of today as well as tomorrow. We hope that some of these suggestions may even help lower the demands on the church’s operating budget by minimizing the need to buy disposable goods and by lowering our use of water. Look for our posters around the church describing how you can contribute to this effort to extend stewardship to all of God’s creation now and in the future.
One such suggestion is for the increased use of reusable items to replace paper and Styrofoam cups, plates, and bowls. Many coffee drinkers are used to bringing their favorite commuter mug to work, why not bring it to church as well? Or use a ceramic mug from Café Divine? Yes, this does increase the need for water to clean the mugs, plates, and bowls, but there is plenty of energy and water used to produce disposable items as well. Let’s not forget that a reduced demand on our municipal landfills can save taxpayer dollars as well as our local environment.
In the end, good stewardship of resources is about caring for God’s gift of creation, and working together, there is much that the St. David’s community can accomplish.
Congratulations St. David’s!!
Thanks to your efforts, the recycling program has increased dramatically in 2008. Just look at the volume of materials you have kept out the landfills this past year:
Ink Cartridges: 500 collected, an 89% increase resulting in providing approximately 7,700 meals to the Austin Area Food Bank.
Cell Phones: 135 collected, a 35% increase. Phones are taken to Safe Place to provide “911” phones for battered women.
Glasses: 344 collected, a 35% increase. Glasses are sent to the Lions Club for distribution to Trinity Center and to other local and overseas needy organizations.
CD’s: 1,229 collected, a 54% increase. These are sent to a re-manufacturer to remove the metals and plastics to be made into other products.
Batteries: ½ to ¾ ton, a 100% plus increase. We are an official City of Austin drop off site, with the hazardous waste department picking up from us monthly.
Pull Tabs: We don’t count the tabs, but the program appears to be growing considerably.
Prescription Bottles: It is estimated that the number of recycled Prescription Bottles was over 4,300 bottles.
Learn how you can help the recycling efforts at St. David’s with your drop-offs and more on why you should use compact fluorescent light bulbs.
