On Earth Day this year, the Catholic Climate Covenant (CCC) challenged Catholics everywhere to reconsider our overuse of SINGLE-USE DISPOSABLE PLASTICS which contribute to what Pope Francis calls “the throwaway culture.”
From increasing land and marine pollution to increasing our use of carbon-producing fuels, our reliance on single-use plastics has a devastating impact on God’s creation. Plastic now pollutes every corner of our Earth. Evidence shows that plastic bags, bottles, compact discs, cigarette tips, tooth brushes are in landfills, have floated across the oceans, and have sunk deep to the sea floors.
A plastic bottle takes on average 450 years to degrade, and we produce 300 million tons of plastic each year. We cannot change the past but we can reduce our use of plastics NOW.
Reduce and Eliminate Use of Single-Use Plastics
The Dominican Sisters~Grand Rapids Care of Creation Committee invites us to a challenge to commit to using fewer disposable plastics and to participating in activities to reduce single-use plastic. We will be joining many communities connected with the Catholic Climate Covenant who, throughout the summer, who will be encouraging Catholic communities to do projects to save the planet from more plastic.
The progress of these endeavors will be collected during the Seasons of Creation (Sept.1 to Oct. 4, the Feast of St. Francis). On that feast day, Catholic Climate Covenant will report the data and let the world know what the U.S. Catholic community is doing to reduce our throwaway culture and plastic pollution.
During this summer, we will present ideas on how we personally and as a community can reduce our one-time usage of plastics, beginning this Sunday with ideas about plastics and meals. Story boards and fact sheets will be available in Dominican Chapel /Marywood lobby at 2025 Fulton Street, East, Grand Rapids, Michigan. We invite you to explore reasons to act and ideas on how to act. Watch for news about shared successes, too!
About every three weeks we will select another area of concern that we can Reduce, Reuse, Recycle, Repair, Refuse. We welcome feedback and other ideas which we will compile and send to the Catholic Climate Covenant who will proclaim the national Catholic effort to save the planet. Do you want to commit to do more?
For more information, contact Brigid Clingman, OP
