This is a true story about how one person with a committed heart toward Creation Care changed a long standing habit of a lot of people. It’s also a story about how something small can get people thinking about caring for God’s creation
Mad City Church in Madison WI is a church that does not yet own a building. Since Mad City started meeting in 1996, they have rented space in a number of buildings. As they have grown, so has the space that they needed.
Part of Mad City’s Sunday morning fellowship is a coffee time. With a church the size of Mad City, their morning fellowship is more than just a “small coffee maker and a few cakes”. Just because it was easier or perhaps because of cost, Mad City has been using styrofoam (styrofoam is Dow Chemical’s trade name for its blown foam polystyrene product) coffee cups for a long time. That is until one person in the church decided that there was a better way.
Kathy was attending a study group where the subject of creation care was being discussed. These discussions led her to do some research on using styrofoam cups or paper cups and exactly what effect both styrofoam and paper cups had on the refuse stream and landfills that the church was generating.
Here are some interesting facts about polystyrene (styrofoam):
- The main ingredient of polystyrene is styrene, a petroleum by-product. This means that polystrene cups, trays and food containers are not a sustainable product.
- In the food service applications, polystyrene products are important because they are ideal for making “one-time-use” containers and utensils. One time use is important for sanitary reasons — especially in applications for hospitals and schools.
- Polystyrene foam products are 95 percent air and only five percent polystyrene. When polystyrene foam is produced, a blowing agent primarily (Pentane and Carbon Dioxide) is used in the process.
- Your instinct might be to use paper cups instead of polystyrene cups because of their biodegradable qualities. However, according to an article published in 2006 in Environmental Management Magazine, (available here) “Once used both cup types (paper and styrene) may be recycled. Landfill disposal of the two items under dry conditions will occupy similar landfill volumes after compaction and will confer similarly slow to nonexistent decomposition to either option.
- There is a lot of conflicting and uncertain information about the amount of energy required to manufacture paper cups and styrene cups and the amount of energy required to wash re-usable mugs.
- Tests have been done regarding the leakage of polystyrene from food and beverage containers into the food that they contain. Although the tests are inconclusive as they apply to cancer causing agents, the site “Earth Resource” (at http://www.earthresource.org/campaigns/capp/capp-styrofoam.html) points out that “Styrene is classified as a possible human carcinogen by the EPA and by the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC).”
- A 2006 article in the Penn online said that “Styrofoam does not dissolve and has the chance of remaining for more than 400 years before any changes in its physical makeup occur. It is estimated that Styrofoam waste takes up 25 percent to 30 percent of all landfill space.” Other sources pointed out that decomposition time is anywhere between 100 and 1000 years. This means that every bit of styrofoam that has ever been produced is still somewhere on the planet — in our landfills or in our oceans or rivers.
Based on these facts and other research, Kathy had a simple solution — don’t use either paper or styrofoam! Use something that had less impact on the refuse stream.
So, Kathy collected a large number of coffee mugs (some that she had and some that she got from various local thrift shops) and put them out with a sign next to the regular stack of Sunday styrofoam. The sign gave some health facts about styrofoam and also listed some of the impact that styrofoam has on the environment.
Short but sweet.
She also recruited a group of volunteers to collect the mugs at the end of the coffee time, take them home, wash them and return them next week. Her sign also mentioned that people could (and should) bring their own mugs as a personal way to help the environment.
The point of her campaign was to get people to take a moment and think about what they were doing instead of simply reaching for a styrofoam cup like they always did.
People’s first reaction to the sign and the cups was a bit strange. For some of them, this was the first time that they thought about the whole issue of church and the environment. For others, they got the concept of small creation care steps right away.
The great thing about this is that the whole effort was organized by a few people. It also delivered a powerful message about caring for the environment and how that fits with our belief in God as the creator.
What about the future? Kathy says that she has hopes that this might be the first in a series of events that gets Mad City Church thinking about creation care and changing some of the things that they do on a regular basis.
Just goes to show that a Green Team at church has a lot of opportunities to be creative as they encourage others to care of creation.
Think that this would work in your church? How about giving it a try.
Sources:
The American Chemestry Council: http://www.americanchemistry.com/s_plastics/sec_pfpg.asp?CID=1433&DID=5225
The Penn: http://media.www.thepenn.org/media/storage/paper930/news/2006/02/27/Variety/The-NeverDecomposing.Story-2231420.shtml