Reducing Waste and Pollution
Please sing or read the following hymn (StF 729)
- Touch the earth lightly,
use the earth gently,
nourish the life of the world in our care:
gift of great wonder,
ours to surrender,
trust for the children tomorrow will bear.
- We who endanger,
who create hunger,
agents of death for all creatures that live,
we who would foster
clouds of disaster—
God of our planet, forestall and forgive!
- Let there be greening,
birth from the burning,
water that blesses and air that is sweet,
health in God’s garden,
hope in God’s children,
regeneration that peace will complete.
- God of all living,
God of all loving,
God of the seedling, the snow and the sun,
teach us, deflect us,
Christ reconnect us,
using us gently, and making us one.
Shirley Erena Murray (b.1931) Words © 1992 Hope Publishing Company
Prayer
Living God,
Where there is waste, let us bring recycling
Where there is recycling, let us bring reuse
Where there is reuse, let us bring sustainability
Where there is sustainability, let us bring justice
Where there is justice, let us bring love
John Polhill, from Eggs and Ashes
To think about
- In the hymn we have just shared, what pictures does the writer create of our present times? What is different about the future she looks forward to?
- What does she think we need to make that future happen?
- How does Jesus make a difference as we reach out towards that future?
Waste and pollution in the news: have a look at these stories. What makes sense to you? What intrigues you? What surprises you? How do the stories make you feel?
Mayor’s clean air plan with no charges backed
Plans to improve air quality in Greater Manchester by investing in cleaner buses and taxis rather than charging drivers have been backed by the government.
Local leaders put forward the £86m proposal in December 2023 after dropping plans for a charging Clean Air Zone (CAZ) like those in place in other local authorities due to public backlash.
Government officials have ruled the plan will see air pollution cut to within legal limits by 2026.
‘My children won’t know the rivers I grew up with’
Hundreds of people who claim to have been affected by river pollution are threatening to expand their legal action.
Those living near the rivers Wye, Lugg and Usk say they have been robbed of the rivers they enjoyed playing in as children due to the smell and sludge caused by pollution.
They have previously launched a legal case against the firms involved in large-scale chicken farming locally – but now plan to extend this to cover Welsh Water as well, in the biggest claim of its kind in the UK.
Welsh Water said it was investing £2.5bn over the next five years to improve the environment.
Oceans littered with 171 trillion plastic pieces
More than 171 trillion pieces of plastic are now estimated to be floating in the world’s oceans, according to scientists.
Plastic kills fish and sea animals and takes hundreds of years to break down into less harmful materials.
The concentration of plastics in the oceans has increased from 16 trillion pieces in 2005, data suggests.
It could nearly triple by 2040 if no action is taken, scientists warn.
Last week, nations signed the historic UN High Seas treaty aiming to protect 30% of the oceans.
Bible readings: Leviticus 25:1 – 7
1 The Lord spoke to Moses on Mount Sinai, saying: 2 Speak to the people of Israel and say to them: When you enter the land that I am giving you, the land shall observe a sabbath for the Lord. 3 For six years you shall sow your field, and for six years you shall prune your vineyard, and gather in their yield; 4 but in the seventh year there shall be a sabbath of complete rest for the land, a sabbath for the Lord: you shall not sow your field or prune your vineyard. 5 You shall not reap the aftergrowth of your harvest or gather the grapes of your unpruned vine: it shall be a year of complete rest for the land. 6 You may eat what the land yields during its sabbath—you, your male and female slaves, your hired and your bound labourers who live with you; 7 for your livestock also, and for the wild animals in your land all its yield shall be for food.
- How might the people of Israel have engaged with this teaching?
- Why do you think God gave this instruction to Moses as part of the law?
- How might we put it into practice in our own times?
Matthew 6:25 – 33
25 ‘Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? 26 Look at the birds of the air; they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? 27 And can any of you by worrying add a single hour to your span of life? 28 And why do you worry about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they neither toil nor spin, 29 yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not clothed like one of these. 30 But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you—you of little faith? 31 Therefore do not worry, saying, “What will we eat?” or “What will we drink?” or “What will we wear?” 32 For it is the Gentiles who strive for all these things; and indeed your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. 33 But strive first for the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.
- What links can you see between pollution and worrying about life? If we stopped worrying about the things Jesus mentions, would waste levels reduce? God knows that you need these things’ – what experience do you have of God making sure we have what we need? What risks do you see in making this statement?
- What links can you see between these two Bible readings and the news stories we reflected on?
- Can we, as Christians, gradually bend the trajectory of our existence towards balance with nature and its timing?
Challenges for the week
Individual
- Don’t buy anything that has more than one wrapping
- Use only biodegradable detergents
Church
- Measure and record the amount of rubbish you don’t reuse or recycle. Then set yourself a target for waste reduction
- Ask the local council about how it recycles – what it collects and why it doesn’t collect more
Prayer:
Jesus our Saviour,
Take our rubbish,
The greed indulged,
The broken promises,
Anger, resentments.
Take the long list of sin
That warps our being,
And weave your forgiving love
That makes of waste
A growing place
Chris Polhill, in Eggs and Ashes
