BPNFC - Chickens and Sustainable Living

Reading Br Paul Noonan Formation Centers post Chickens and Sustainable Living was encouraging.  BPNFC had a Sustainable Development Workshop in which they recognized how we all play a part in affecting our environment.  They then pledged to increase the centers' sustainability.  The pictures show the animals the centre has acquired and the post mentions one very important effort: "disposing of garbage, recycling, attempting to make the novitiate a plastic free area".  Disposing of garbage is important in keeping the streets clean, as well as the gutters, parks, peoples’ homes, etc.  Recycling reduces the amount of waste that accumulates.  This can be seen just by breaking down the word, re – again, cycle – circle, in other words you are bringing the product back into the circle of use.  The thing is, this is not always enough, as many products cannot be recycled or are very difficult to do so, particularly plastics.

Through the centers' goal of becoming plastic free, they are starting a very important initiative that will hopefully be mirrored throughout the country.  We existed for millennia without plastic, yet we are completely dependent on it in our capitalist culture.  This is the culture that has dissipated through much of the world.  Around the world, people can be found trying to reuse plastics and trying to reduce their use of it.  One example I found a while back is in India.  The electronic waste is more thoroughly sorted than in Ghana.  These people don’t merely search for the valuable metals, but also use every other material.  When electronic waste reaches India, even the plastic casings are taken apart and sent to factories, where the plastics are sorted and then melted to produce new products.  Plastics are terrible products.  Plastics take so long to break down completely that they become magnets for toxins as this happens.  The smaller the plastic pieces, the more surface area for these toxins, which means the higher levels of these toxins. By creating new products in India, these people are continuing the use of what we already have.  It is a use of energy that should not have been brought about in the first place.  This use of energy, however, reduces the amount of toxic waste.

There are many ways to reduce or minimize plastics in our living.  Like I already stated, we existed for millennia without plastics.  Why can’t we go back to not using them?  It is amazing how easily we could minimize our plastics.  Sure, the computer I am using to write this blog has plastic.  That is something I could not control.  The bottle I use to carry my water, however, is a reusable one.  I only use bottled water in Ghana and even then, I try to avoid that.  When in Canada, I have safe drinking water flowing out of almost every tap I encounter.  Because of that, I use the aforementioned reusable bottle.  I have a metal one and when that one is not available, I use a glass jar.  Both are reusable, last longer than the plastic one if I take care of them and the glass jar is less expensive!  Remember, plastics break down.  One-time-use plastics break down more quickly, but even the sturdier plastics eventually break down into the water we store into the bottles.  We cannot see these plastics in our water, yet they are there and likely have attracted toxic materials and/or bacteria.  It is ridiculous to knowingly introduce these materials into our body when safer products are available.

I may have discussed the bottle, but this is not the only place plastic is found.  Every time you go to use plastic, ask yourself what other option could have been used.  The other option is likely healthier and less wasteful.  If it is something that would still need to be disposed of, could this other product be composted?  Because plastic can never be composted.

This weeks’ quote is a bit outdated, as we are now at approximately a little bit over seven billion.  Also, inhabitants of the earth should really also include all other living organisms.
I wish everybody could have the experience of looking back at the Earth and realizing that it's really no different from a spacecraft. The five and a half billion inhabitants of Earth are all astronauts living on a spaceship that has limited resources. We have to use these resources very wisely if the ship is to keep us alive. – Captain James Lovell