People of Hope:
As early as the end of this week, you will see clearly marked containers for recycling around Esperanza. The signs on the recycling containers will show:
NO YES
Plastic Bags / Plastic Wrap Plastic Bottles
Cups with Wax or Plastic Coating Paper & Cardboard
Styrofoam Aluminum & Metal Cans
Liquids / Trash / Compost Glass
If you are not sure if an item might be recyclable, please place it in the trash. In conversation with our recycling and trash vendor, I learned that they are not able to sort trash from our recycling. This means that mixing the two creates problems. A question that often comes up is whether we are able to recycle plastic silverware, plastic grocery bags, or plastic food bags, like the plastic bags grapes come in. The answer is no. We can recycle plastic bottles, of course, but not flimsier plastic.
You may know that we have two dumpsters near the Garden of Eatin’ in a gated enclosure. There is no lock on the gate. The dumpster on the right is for trash; the dumpster on the left is for recycling — in case you happen to be taking out the trash or recycling here at church.
We are now also composting at church events — as you probably know! The easiest place to put your compost is in the metal bucket that is clearly marked underneath the kitchen sink. You may also place your compost directly in one of the blue bins in the compost area at the Garden of Eatin’.
In the second creation story of Genesis, after creating the heavens and earth, “the Lord God formed man from the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and the man became a living being” (Genesis 2:7). Later, we learn that the name of this first man is Adam, a play on the Hebrew word for soil. We humans were created out of the soil, and we are still part of it. For nothing in this whole, wide, technologically advanced world can be made or done without our interdependence on Earth itself. We humans get a little big for our britches when we think we are somehow separate and apart from the very Earth that provides everything we need to live. Caring for Earth, then, is not about being environmentally hip but about caring for ourselves, our neighbors, and generations of humans and other animals yet to come.
If our basic survival were not enough to lure us into caring for this precious planet, God places Adam, the soil-man, in the garden of Eden to till it and keep it (Genesis 2:15). And in the first creation story, God commands the newly created humans to have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the air and over every living thing that moves upon the earth (Genesis 1:28). Dominion is not a command to exploit but a command to care, like a king who has dominion by providing for the needs of the entire kingdom.
Thank you, soil-people, for responding to God’s call!
With gratitude,
Pastor Sarah