Recycling Report
KAY DUVAL
Did you know that St. Paul’s has had an active Recycling Ministry for more than twenty years?
Did you know that, through our recycling efforts, we have kept many tons of reusable resources out of the landfill?
We do have a Recycling Ministry, which started in 2003, with just a few containers, bearing the words “St. Paul’s Recycles Here” and the Episcopal shield, set up in the halls for collecting bulletins, and some large containers set up near the kitchen and parish hall for the recyclables generated by the food programs made possible through our newly completed building expansion. We were a small program with a very small team in those first years, each taking one turn per month, but as our church has grown and our programs have multiplied, more volunteers have answered the call so that no one is scheduled now to collect more than about once every two months.
Each week a team member collects and carries to the Fayetteville Recycling Center all of St. Paul’s bulletins and other paper from the offices and the education and music programs; and the metal cans, aluminum cans, the #1 and #2 plastics, and the glass bottles from Community Meals, Wednesday night dinner, Sunday morning breakfast, McMichael receptions, weddings, funerals, community fundraisers, and every other kitchen or Parish Hall event. Several years ago, we added a City bin in the parking lot, where we deposit all the cardboard from everything shipped to every program and ministry of the church.
Over the years, besides the reusable resources that we’ve kept out of the landfill, we’ve had other successes, including, early on, the establishment of a church-wide “no Styrofoam” policy; and, more recently, a rewritten building facilities rental policy which includes strong recycling guidelines.
We can all be proud of a church that takes stewardship of our resources seriously. It may sound like a dirty job, but to the Recyclers, it’s an aspect of Christian discipleship, with the reward of knowing a small part of the environment is being saved for future generations. If you feel a tug toward this aspect of creation care, please know that there is always a place for you in the St. Paul’s Recycling Ministry, whether it be on the collection schedule or in the "non-lifting and carrying" part of the ministry, where we need people to help keep the recycling area organized and placards clean; to check that items haven't been mixed into the wrong bins; and to inform people what can and can't be recycled.
“Reduce, Reuse, Recycle,” the slogan goes, with “recycle” coming in third after the more environmentally vital “reduce” and “reuse.” Pleased as I am that the City of Fayetteville’s Waste Reduction Coordinator calls our program a model for churches and other institutions, it is my hope that in the future we will find more innovative ways to work our Recycling Ministry volunteers out of a job!
As faithful stewards, may we, with God’s help, preserve for our children and our children’s children the resources of “this fragile Earth, our island home” (from Eucharistic Prayer C, BCP).