About twenty years ago, Bob Greene, then a columnist for the Tribune, wrote a little book called Once Upon a Town. It was about a Canteen that the citizens of North Platte, NE operated during World War II. Most soldiers heading for the Pacific on troop trains passed through North Platte on the Union Pacific Railroad. Because North Platte was a crew change point on the UP, the train stopped there for ten minutes. Beginning on Christmas Day, 1941 and continuing until the end of the war in 1945, a group of volunteers met every troop train passing through North Platte and passed out egg salad sandwiches, a piece of cake, and fresh hot coffee. The coffee was served in glass mugs. At the nest stop up the road, the cups were collected and sent back to North Platte on the next train east, The cups were washed by hand and then employed again on the next troop train going west. An average of three to five thousand military personnel passed through North Platte daily; so, washing all those cups was very labor intensive. It would have been easier if they had used Styrofoam cups, but Styrofoam plastic cups did not come on the market until 1960.
Undoubtedly the wide spread use of plastic has made life easier and made many products less expensive and therefore within the reach of more people. Plastic is heavily used in packaging, but can also be found in our clothing, our kitchens, our automobiles, our toolboxes, our toys, and sports equipment. The problem is that plastic is not good for our planet. Because plastic does not occur in nature, it does not decompose the way other discards do. Plastics take anywhere from twenty to five hundred years to decompose. It is estimated that a disposable diaper will be around for 500 years; a plastic water bottle for 450 years; a sandwich bag for 20 years; and a Styrofoam cup for 500 years. Millions of tons of plastic end up in our oceans. On top of that, plastic comes from petroleum. Producing one metric ton of plastic emits 135 pounds of greenhouse gases, which are a major source of global warming. Finally, with all this plastic in our lives, we (along with other creatures) ae ingesting tiny particles of plastic in the air and water, which is not natural for our bodies either. When we drink from those ubiquitous plastic water bottles, we ingest twice as much plastic than when we drink a glass of tap water from a glass. And we are producing more and more plastic. In 1950, we produced 2 million metric tons. Between 2010 and 2020, we went from 270 million tons to 370 million tons. At the present rate we will be at 590 million tons by 2050. Convenience and low cost come at a price, a price that we may not be able to pay in the future.
That is why as we approach Earth Day 2024, plastic has become a focal point of the environmental movement. Almost ten years ago in Laudato Si’, Pope Francis broke new ground when he declared care of creation a moral issue. His point is that “everything is connected.” As our relationship with our Creator has been neglected, human relationships have faltered, and our world has grown hotter, less stable, and more lifeless. As a result, we all suffer, and the poorest and most vulnerable suffer above all. He called for an “ecological conversion” in which we renew our love for everything that God has created and the home we share with all of God’s creatures. Pope Francis also called upon all Catholic institutions to undertake some practical action on behalf of our common home.
Assumption, like many other parishes in the Archdiocese, will send delegates to one of three regional gatherings to pray, reflect, and discuss a platform for action for the Archdiocese of Chicago. Here at Assumption on Saturday May 18 a smaller group from around the Archdiocese will meet to pull the findings from these regional meetings into a unified plan. While this meeting at Assumption is not a public meeting, all of us are invited to a special ecumenical service that same evening at 7:00pm at Holy Name Cathedral. This Service will celebrate the Installation of the Chicagoland Christians United for the Care of Creation Declaration, which has been signed by thirteen Christian leaders from various denomination. The document says in part, “Because we are made in the image of God and because God loves and cares for creation, we must also care for our common home. To do otherwise is sin.”
Of course, getting away from our heavy use of plastics in real life is going to be difficult. The oil companies, alarmed that the market for electric vehicles might actually take off, are investing billions in producing plastics. And even on the parish level, we have discovered that some of the recyclable paper cups labeled for hot beverages can be leaky. Styrofoam works great. It is just that the joyride may be over.
Fr. Joe
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