The Fruits of Our Labors

 

I’m not here to talk about sin. But I am mulling over these words:

…we confess that we have sinned against you in thought, word, and deed, by what we have done, and by what we have left undone.*

No, let me narrow that down:

…and by what we have left undone.

Right now my house and my car can bear witness to those things which I have left undone:

Large bags of polystyrene coolers waiting to be taken to the EPS Recycling drop off. It has moved - - did you know?

One large bag of assorted bubble wrap. One large bag of plastic grocery bags and similar plastic.

Several large bags of foam plastic packing material that came in my mother in law’s meal delivery orders.

These least malevolent of all this things is a box full of assorted boxes that is waiting to be put out for recycling. That’s easy. Corrugated board needs to be clean and flattened. The county picks it up. Done.

But plastic is not easy. For the companies that bring it into our lives it must be quite easy - - or else they wouldn’t do it. But their responsibility ends once it is in our hands. Why is that? Why don’t they bear the responsibility for its safe disposal and, if possible, reuse?

If we insisted upon that, and we elected public servants who were committed to that, it could happen. Europe has made a lot of progress on this. We have not. And, in recent years, we have been losing ground.

I lie awake at night trying to figure how to safely dispose of inherently unsafe materials but I haven’t as yet focused my energies on stopping the madness at its source. I am a cheap fix for the companies that keep sending me plastic. As long as I am overwhelmed with a sense of personal responsibility I am costing them not one cent.

If I turned my energies to bringing meaningful change?  Then I’d be a threat. Well, by myself I probably wouldn’t be. But the change of mindset from thinking it is somehow my personal failure to recognizing where responsibility lies is a meaningful one. No matter how much I change my personal behavior to be more ecologically aware, the big machines keep spewing out plastic. 

There could be a comprehensive solution. 

Creating and sustaining options that are better for the planet costs money. Why would they do that if not required to do so? Why not bog down individual consumers with layers and layers of Sisyphean ‘solutions’ that are not even solutions? 

What kind of a business model is that? A successful one, or, at least it is right now.

Struggling just to keep up versus changing the world. Lacking the courage to begin. Realizing the consequences of what I have left undone. 

Village Green/Town² Comments 

*From the Confession, Book of Common Prayer, Rite II