Trash for the Library

by Pat
(Houston, TX)

My parish and school in Houston, Texas recycles paper and cans. We placed a special large dumpster in the parish parking lot next to the playground that is exclusively for waste paper and cardboard, and collection bags are scattered through out the buildings to collect aluminum cans. There are also receptacles for plastics and glass but we don't make any money from these but use them to encourage recycling.

Students are taught that waste paper can turn into books as the profits from the recycling are used to buy books and other media for the school library. They also collect waste paper at home and bring it to class to recycle and no longer see waste paper as trash but as a valuable resource.

Books and other media bought from recycling money have special green leaf stickers so everyone can see the results of their hard work.

The parish also carefully saves service bulletins and other paper and contributes to the bin with what would otherwise be rubbish. Many parish members bring their waste paper for the recycling bin when they come for services. As a mark of our commitment, small recycling bins were brought to the altar with the other offering and blessed with a special prayer about care of the earth and our responsibility to cherish it.

Involving the recycling effort into worship helps promote the drive in a way mere words cannot. You are performing a spiritual act as well as an ecological one in bringing your recyclables to the church. The program has been so successful that we had to increase the frequency of pickup for the paper bin.

Any religious body could find away to bless the work of recycling and to make it a matter of the heart as well as being practical and thoughtful. It just takes thinking a little out of the box about recycling and fundraising. Does it work? You should see all the green leaves in the school library!