I’ve received a few questions recently about recycling and why we don’t recycle more at church…
The Eco Church Team have discussed this a few times. I’ve been to many churches who offer recycling and have discussed with the organisers there what the implications are in terms of time and cost. Someone has to keep an eye on the boxes to make sure they don’t overflow, and take them away when they are full or pay for a collection. It seems far easier for everyone to take their little bit of recycling home, especially as we have a good kerbside recycling system. I know many folk do this at Breakfast Church, so I would encourage you to do this if you are making use of the kitchen.
It seems better to prioritise the areas where we can have greater environmental impact.
We are also well serviced in Haxby for things that can’t go in the kerbside system. For example, there is a TerraCycle collection point on Calf Close — you can go to Haxby Recycling’s Facebook Page for more details. I’ve also printed out their current list of items collected and their recycling guide and put them on the noticeboard at the back of the Hall.
One of the reasons the team decided not to focus on recycling was because we have to prioritise our efforts; we can’t do everything. It seems better to prioritise the areas where we can have greater environmental impact.
At the point when we are thinking about recycling, resources have already been extracted and manufactured and goods transported many miles. Let’s think about going further ‘upstream’ and try to reduce waste by using less in the first place. It makes more sense to think about the environmental impact at the point of buying or decision making, rather than when you have already purchased the product.
For example, we had a little discussion at Breakfast Church about butter and plant-based spread. We can end up throwing away half-empty plastic tubs with out of date spread. So Breakfast Church now buy the individual packs of butter from the Lunch Club, which actually ends up with less waste despite being individually wrapped. A block of plant butter — which comes in paper not plastic — can be chopped into smaller individual portions as needed rather than putting the whole plastic pot out.
I also received a query about recycling blister packs for medicines.
I also received a query about recycling blister packs for medicines. There was a scheme in York that used to take them. But apparently the scheme reached its ‘quota’ for the year within the first few months. I wondered if this was a recycling thing that made sense for our church — after all, we can’t exactly cut back or find alternatives; we can’t really do without our medicines! I looked into doing something ourselves and checked out the options. It would cost about £110 per box to be collected by a company in Hull to be taken away and recycled. We would need 2 or 3 boxes a year, potentially. Finances being what they are, that’s not really an option for our church, unless someone feels the urge to make a donation to do that! Of course, there are other arguments about who should ‘pay’ for recycling. There is a ‘polluter pays’ principle which says that packaging should go back to manufacturers to dispose of sustainably, since they have better means to do this than individuals. Organisations are under no obligation to do this at the moment, though there is a petition you can sign to bring it to Parliament:
Blister pack petition: chng.it/zkNS5ZtggD
The Boots website mentions a scheme they run. Although the Boots in Haxby isn’t part of the scheme, the main store in York city centre is. Check it out next time you’re in York — you can register with the scheme and get Boots Advantage Points when you recycle blister packs (along with a minimum spend).
Boots’ blister pack recycling scheme: www.boots.com/shopping/boots-recycling-scheme/blister-pack-recycling
I remembered that a couple of years ago I did a little video presentation giving people a framework to getting started on reducing waste and living more sustainably. It’s about half an hour so do get a coffee and sit down to watch it if you are interested. The key message in the video is about Progress, not perfection. There is such a lot you can do, but just take one or two steps at a time. All of us, doing a handful of things at home will have far more impact than recycling at church.
Lorraine’s video: youtu.be/ewMHTjdHKpY
We discuss many different things at Eco Church, so if you have any questions or suggestions, we are always happy to hear them!
So, next for us is taking a big deep breath and going for our Gold Award. We’re told that it is a big step up so it will take us much longer, but keep an eye out for the little ideas and top tips that will keep coming up.
Other Videos
Here are a couple of other videos you might find interesting…
Climate Change 101, from the BBC: youtu.be/SLEenW2UiUw
How green is recycling?, from the BBC: https://youtu.be/uJumfSGGmtk
Lorraine Jones and the Eco Church Team