For some time now, we’ve it’s been reported that our passion for plastic is causing untold damage to the environment and especially and marine life.The news this week that China to whom we export most of our plastic waste is to be far more selective in what it will accept is bringing the whole question of how we dispose of plastic waste and a whole rethink on our failure to recycle what we throw away generally. Add to that the likely levy on coffee cups and the whole questions of how we farce tis challenge is high on the agenda once again.
The Welsh assembly took theinitiative which other parts of the UK are now adopting of charging for plastic bags. That has been a big step forward and itdoes raise the question as to whether we really need all the plastic and packaging that is causing such pollution. One of the toys ourfour-year grandson had this Christmas was so heavily packaged with hard thick plastic that we nearly had to get a handsaw to releaseto get it out; a package from an on-line retailer had so much bubble wrap ina box that would easily have held three of the items we ordered.
I suppose it would be seen as over simplistic to recall days when milk was delivered in bottles that were returned and used again.Or those ‘Corona’ bottles with their distinctive tops which ensured the pop would not go flat and were returned for use again… and again. My school summer job in a local brewery saw beer bottles returned and a whole day would be set aside for washing, sterilising. I wouldn’t suggest for a moment that fish and chips wrapped in newspaper was the most hygienic but before the day of polystyrene containers that was the norm and no one complained. as far as I know!
The Bible speaks of us as being ‘stewards’ of creation and for the time we are here. Jesus told a story of three servants entrusted with sums of money to invest while their master was away. Two invested well and were well rewarded, the third buried his money sand and did nothing. That’s not an option – God said ‘Let there be light’ creation was born and given to our care as good stewards who invest in the ways of preserving this wonderful world for generations to come.
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