Plastic Free July Prayer
Dear God, Please give us the strength and determination to help protect the world you have created for us. As we continue to care for this world, we hope that as children of God, we can make our air, water, and food cleaner.
Amen.
Catherine, Year 7
Through Iona Presentation College
Knowledge
July’s editions of YLBG will be focused on Plastic Free July. I hope you will join us by examining your plastic use and make a difference with your actions.
The Plastics Taskforce of our Dorothy Stang Initiative has chosen to focus our advocacy eliminating plastic bags. We have written letter to the editors and sent letters to corporate stores managers in an effort to change the way we look at the plastic bag. I must admit it is a different approach from my initial vision, which was much more … confrontational. Through the wisdom of the sisters, I am learning that building from the grassroots is the best approach. Inviting people to look seriously at the effects of each of our individual actions and decisions will is leading more and more to action on a larger scale. Advocacy is the goal because only through large scale change will we make a true impact. However, finding your reason to advocate is important to sustain your energy for the long run. As motivation, we offer the following facts:
Americans annually use 100 billion plastic bags which have a lifetime of over 500 years. It requires 12 million barrels of oil to produce those 100 billion bags. These bags substantially add to the 15 million tons of mostly single use plastic waste that pollutes our ocean each year.
These three facts alone are motivation for me! But there are so many more. You can find facts about plastic bags at the Beyond Plastics website. Switching to reusables is one of the easiest changes you can make.
Action
So many options!
Personal:
How did you do in week 3 of the Plastic Free July Challenge? What can you change for week 4?
Professional:
How can you reduce or eliminate plastic where you work? Are there ways you can reduce the number of garbage bags used?
In the world:
Our personal choices are important. But, large scale change will come when corporations and politicians are on board. Eliminating plastic bags is one easy thing we can do immediately. Check out options for reusable bags here. Go for the canvas if you can!
Our own Plastics Taskforce is working on actions and solutions. Email us at [email protected]