Many, many years ago, when I was in college, I had a handful of friends who were hardcore environmentalists. They wore tie-dye, did not wear make-up or shave, and they carried around a cup and chop sticks. Sharing many of their core values, I admired these friends, but was too conventional to emulate their lifestyles.
Twenty years later, I have gotten much greener, aligning my actions to my aspirations. While I remain fairly mainstream (I am still a suburban prep at heart), I have been carrying around a cup, plate, flatware and, yes, sometimes even chopsticks.
About a year ago, I watched the movie "No Impact Man," a documentary chronicling Colin Beavan's year-long project in which he, his wife, and his two-year-old attempted to live in the middle of New York City with as little environmental impact as possible. Over the course of a year, they stop using anything disposable, buying new things and using electricity for anything. OK, pretty extreme. However, despite the spectacle that Beavan makes of this project, I was completely drawn in by his earnest approach and well-placed criticisms of American consumer culture.
The movie explores the amount of garbage produced by take-out food and disposable plates and flatware. It really spoke to me. As the scene lingered on piles of disposal items in a garbage can, I thought about how disgusting the image was! My first instinct was to lament the unenlightened Americans who every day eat loads of junk food leaving behind plastic wrappers. Then, more importantly, I took a moment to consider how I contribute to that pile. At the time, I was doing very well in terms of disposables when I was in my house, but I knew I could do better, especially when I was outside of my home.
Every Jewish New Year, Jews throughout the world consider the state of their lives, where they have gone wrong, and renew their will to do better. Last Rosh Hashanah, I wanted to lessen my impact on the environment. In particular, I challenged myself to minimize the use of plastic ware and other food related disposables. Did I become "no-impact woman," never touching a plastic cup? No. However, I made a huge paradigm shift, especially outside of my house. Through careful planning, I significantly reduced my use of plastic and paper. To accomplish my goal, I carried a plate and silverware to meetings and meals outside of my home. It was not always convenient, but it was not that hard either. Yes, I got funny looks sometimes, but along the way, I fielded interesting questions and had significant conversations. A few people have even reported to me that they have changed their behaviors.
There have been times when I did not have my "gear" with me. Sometimes I have wavered in my resolve when I felt like I did not have a good option; more often I have waited to eat. An iced coffee would have hit the spot on a hot day, but the impulse purchase had to be abandoned, because I did not have my cup. I did not starve or dehydrate. I merely thought about my needs, wants, and the impact I have on the world.
My cup, plate and fork are part of a holy task. The Torah teaches, "When you wage war against a city and you have to besiege it a long time in order to capture it, you must not destroy its trees, wielding the ax against them" (Deuteronomy 20:19). OK, so how do we apply this to our lives? From this verse, we can learn that when we are focused on one task, we must not forget the bigger values we hold dear. In other words, just because I am hungry, I cannot forget that my behavior shapes the environment. In our rush to do so much in life and to make meal time convenient, we must not forget our holy task of preserving the environment (bal tashchet in Hebrew).
The term bal tashchet literally means not to destroy wantonly. Frankly, I had to learn not be wasteful by promoting the value of bal tashchet and placing it above other values, like being a polite, compliant guest and not making a spectacle of myself. Last Rosh Hashanah is long past, but the cup, plate and flatware are now a part of my daily habits. I may not get it right 100 percent of the time, but I am getting closer than I was before.
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carrying around flatware, cups, dishes is such an awesome idea. i never thought about that. i'm going to start doing that too!!
when i first moved out to california i happened to find a room in a house with some pro-bike, very green berkeley graduate students. it was a co-op so we made and shared meals. i went out to dinner with them and they brought their own tupperware for the leftovers. wow. i was shocked but intrigued!!!
i remember a long time ago hearing about some guy who only has one small bag of garbage a month because he recycles and reuses and composts everything. i was amazed. don't even remember who he is but he's like my idol now. of course, we get nowhere near that. but i started a compost pile for the first time a few months ago! i have a phobia of bugs so it's not easy =)
i try to recycle and reuse. one thing i try to do also is to reuse my daughter's arts and crafts. so if she puts stickers on a piece of paper, instead of throwing it away, i cut out the stickers and have her use them again. same with like buttons and other craft things.
=)
Those who abandon their families will be rewarded. (Matthew 19:29)
"For I am come to set man at variance against his father, and the daughter against her mother... And a man's foes shall be they of his own household." (Christ - Matthew 10:35-36)
"I came not to send peace, but a sword" (Christ - Matthew 10:34)
If you don't have a sword, sell your clothes to buy one. (Luke 22:36)
Christ cursed a fig tree for not bearing fruit in off-season. (Mark 11:12-14, 20-21)
Christ didn't want to help a girl because she was a "dog" gentile. (Matthew 15:22-28)
Of course, there are several good passages in the Bible, the ones that are carefully selected by a minister for Sunday readings, but (and pardon the analogy) if you find some chocolate in a pile of dung, you don't eat it, right? No. The good is tainted by the bad that surrounds it.
"Disposable Wisdom vs. Biblical Products"
Absolutely heartwarming that the bible says that you should be considerate to the trees when you wage war against a city. Bloody heII.
I think we could come up with a better alternative to plastic bottles and polystyrene containers on the fast food line but I'm not a scientist so this is only my cynical mind thinking that money is at the root of all things.
In saying this, I believe that Mother Nature has been through much more than we human beings could ever possibly do to upset her balance to such a degree that would be fatal, she has this amazing ability to recover from Ice Ages, heat extremities and all the other geological things that have pounded her and she always springs back stronger thn before.
This is not to say that we should wantonly savage our world and I think we really need to be thinking about a lot of alternative ways of how we create and harness natural power that Mother Nature provides us every single day. I believe that you have to put back as well as take out otherwise the well will eventually dry up.
The sad fact is that if we want to become greener, we must embed these values into the law and the tax code. Leading by example simply doesn't work, not on the scale required. Blame the daily media assault on our senses for that and the perceived elitism of the green movement.
But it's a GIANT leap from that quoted Scripture passage to any practices regarding reusable vs disposable products.
That passage, "When you wage war against a city and you have to besiege it a long time in order to capture it, you must not destroy its trees, wielding the ax against them," doesn't have any authentic "green" context or "green" interpretation. It's meaning was (and is) simply, don't destroy the trees of the peoples you conquer - but do take the trees and their products for your own use.
You are citing as an example to emulate a people who covet their neighbor's land. In order to possess it, they lay siege to the city (or mere settlement), and destroy it. But they're smart enough not to chop down the trees whose produce and timber they also happen to covet.
That cannot be the spiritual basis for any view of environmentalism. Not now, not ever.