Waste

Alan writes – This is just a musing; perhaps more accurately a rant. It comes from having spent a long time on planes and having time to reflect.

Traveling to and from the UK I was amazed at how much waste is produced by a plane load of travelers. Of course there is the individual waste; newspapers, magazines, plastic wrappers from aircraft blankets, discarded water bottles, eye blindfolds, aircraft socks etc that cumulatively make the aircraft look like a tip when everyone walks of.  And added to this is the enormous amount of plastic that is collected and thrown away; small plastic trays, cutlery, tin foil plate covers, wine bottles, empty cans, table napkins, plastic milk pottles (and by the way -why are they so hard to open without spraying milk everywhere?) etc etc.

Watching this led me to look more closely at railway and airport terminals, shopping malls and take-away and fast food outlets rubbish. Being away and having to buy food with pounds (the NZ to UK pounds exchange rate is very cruel on the kiwi dollar) encouraged us to eat cheaply. Finding McDonalds one of the cheapest options gave plenty of opportunity to observe mounting piles of large clear plastic bags being filled with waste rubbish.

One simple and cheap breakfast (McDonalds hotcakes and coffee) produces:

            

One large paper bag

Two plastic coffee cups

Two small milk pottles for coffee

Two plastic coffee stirrers

Four sachets of sugar (which we gave back)

2 plastic forks, 2 plastic knives

Two plastic wrappers for cutlery (above)

Two styrofoam meal wrappers (both with Styrofoam lids)

Two plastic containers with tinfoil lids of maple syrup

Four plastic containers with tinfoil lids

At the end of the meal all of this is bundled into a large plastic bag and no doubt heads directly to some land fill.

What are we doing? Sure this kind of living is cheap and convenient but the equation of rubbish created to food value consumed seems way out of kilter. While the meal was forgotten in five minutes and hunger simply abated for a few hours the rubbish will live with us and our grandchildren’s grandchildren for hundreds of years (maybe longer).

These musings were compounded by looking out train windows and seeing the mounting piles of rubbish left alongside railway lines, and the endless spread of plastic bags, bottles, cans strewn everywhere. 

I want to follow this posting in due course with one on human waste because in our waste creating world it is not simply plastic cutlery that is being thrown on the scrap heap but also people…

Comments

[Jen]

Thank you for these observations and reminder of our responsibility or should I say lack of. This issue and our care of our planet in general, our squandering of resources and rape, exploitation, and complete disregard of the land is perhaps the biggest issue facing this generation. Christians don't take this seriously. We get so tied up in the minutiae of our 'relationship' with God and have the wonderful illusion that the cosmos will all miraculously be restored and taken care of for our needs and enjoyment ad infinitum. I wonder when we will wake up! It is possibly already too late. Like the church the earth is having to adapt to sustain itself.