Live lighter:
find a place for all your waste!
To continue in our waste series, we are excited to share this eco-faith invitation from a member of our Union community. Kay Olsen shared this local waste company when we first launched the Eco-faith initiative and says:
I don't know if this is too “commercial” of an idea, but a few months ago, I subscribed to a local service called Ridwell, which picks up and redistributes or recycles many products that our local recycling service won’t take. One example is the plastic film used for many forms of packaging and I sometimes find unavoidable. In addition to bi-weekly pick-ups of light bulbs, batteries, plastic film and clothing, Ridwell includes a pick up from a rotating list.
And that’s pretty much what Ridwell does! You can pay a small fee for pickups every two weeks to avoid the hassle of making multiple trips to various collection sites in your quest to produce less waste. In addition to the above regular categories of waste, you can also add on larger items that Ridwell sends to partner organizations — e-waste gets recycled by strict standards, latex paint gets re-mixed and tinted, and styrofoam/plastic wrap is used to make composite decking and new trash cans, as well as renewable fuel sources.
Feel free to look around on their very simple website for more info about items they collect, their local story, and their blog — this one on 5 Great Reads About Waste was very helpful. You can also learn more about partner community organizations that repurpose bottle caps for art and kitchenware for Refugee Women’s Alliance.
To conclude, we invite you to follow Kay’s lead and let us know how you are reducing waste, or if you decide to try out Ridwell! The Notkins recently started a service with them after hearing about it from Kay and also give glowing reviews.
We leave you with John 6:12-15, after Jesus miraculously and abundantly feeds the crowd with loaves and fishes:
When the people had eaten their fill, he said to his disciples, “Gather the leftovers so nothing is wasted.” They went to work and filled twelve large baskets with leftovers from the five barley loaves.
The people realized that God was at work among them in what Jesus had just done.