The Green Sanctuary Committee identifies and seeks to develop ways the congregation can function in a more environmentally sustainable manner.
The Committee's activities include:
1.) Auditing church energy use and acting to conserve energy, either directly or by assisting other congregational groups, and with due consideration of both immediate and longer-term costs and benefits;
2.) Annually assisting the minister in planning a Sunday service based on the UU principle of respecting 'the web of nature of which we are a part';
3.) Providing leadership to the congregation in maintaining the church recycling program;
4.) Soliciting congregational ideas for living in more sustainable ways in our church and our homes and publicizing such ideas to the congregation for members' consideration; and Highlighting for the congregation environmental concerns in the broader community, especially pertaining to
Springfield.
TIPS FOR GREENER LIVING
Lowdown on Plastic Water Bottles
When we buy drinking water in plastic bottles we usually are just paying cash for the same quality water that's free from a nearby faucet. Yet, we Americans spend $$$for 28-billion of these single use water bottles every year. Manufacturing and transporting them uses 47-million gallons of petroleum. After you drink the water, over 80% of the bottles go to landfills. What a waste of resources and land!
Some universities have stopped campus sale of bottled water. Some cities (San Francisco Seattle, and Providence R.I.) have stopped using public funds to buy water in plastic bottles in order to save money and support the environment. Most recently, the Mayor of St. Louis has banned the purchase of water in plastic bottles in all the city departments he controls.
The use of plastic water bottles may have an effect on health. Reusing the single-use #1 PETE plastic water bottles permits chemicals--used in making the plastic flexible--to leach out; even more chemicals leach out if the plastic has been heated. The hard #7 plastic "Nalgene-type" water bottles are not safe either. Extensive research has demonstrated that the chemical bisphenol-A, which they contain, leaches out, acts like estrogen in the body and causes infertility in laboratory test mice. This finding led retailers in 2008 to withdraw the sale of these #7 plastic bottles for use by babies. Nalgene has now discontinued the use of bisphenol-A in the #7 bottles.
What's the safest and "greenest" thing to do? Drink tap water. Filtered tap water tastes fine, and filtering may remove 90% of undesirable chemicals. For a must-have carry-around bottle, the best option now is stainless steel, generally available but expensive. Or consider one of the newer certified bisphenol-A-free bottles. Of course, glass is fine but breakable.
At ALUUC, we recycle plastic bottles. Most of us probably recycle them at home. We would do well to eliminate their use altogether.
