It’s now ten days since the single-use plastic ban took effect iin New Jersey. Last Sunday, just a few days after it began, Sheneman had a political cartoon of a man complaining that it was inconvenient and sea animals next to him with plastic bags hanging on their necks noting that it was more inconvenient for them.
The Great Pacific Ocean Garbage Patch is less a garbage island than a floating soup of plastic bottles, fishing nets, and even tires and toothbrushes. And we find microplastics, little bits of plastic that we often do not see in our lakes, rivers, streams, and even in our air. Birds, building nests, are sometimes tangled in the ubiquitous plastic bag.
Remember the line from The Graduate when William Daniels’ character says to the young Benjamin Braddock (Dustin Hoffman), “The future is in plastics?” The local ShopRite has developed a reusable bag, but I wonder if it will just become another piece of plastic garbage. Plastic is wonderful in its place, for sure but I wonder where those bags will end up.
Prayer for the Day
Living our lives in different ways, O God, we wonder
If the little changes we make will help our world.
Finding bags of cotton, recycled plastic, and other materials
Yes, it forces us to think, but to act?
You tell us to stop our grumbling and get on with it,
Probably the same commands as made by your prophets.
In the name of the One who listened to the birds,
Even Christ Jesus our Lord, Amen.
Thoughts for the Day
Industrial pollution and plastic waste must be tackled for the future of all life in the ocean.
- David Attenborough, naturalist, film maker.
There is no such thing as “away.” When we throw anything away, it must go somewhere.
- Annie Leonard, Director, Greenpeace USA
Keep my steps steady according to your promise,
And never let iniquity have dominion over me.
Redeem me from human oppression that I may keep your precepts.
Make your face shine upon your servant, and teach me your statutes.
Psalm 118: 133-135