Social Justice Tag: Earth

By Jason Giovannettone, Climate and Sustainability Director 

During the month of July, we are going to look at various aspects of plastic pollution and attempt to abstain from one type of single-use plastic each week.

Efforts to either recycle or break down used plastic products will not come anywhere close to solving the issue. Recycling only considers the end of the life cycle of a plastic product, which does nothing to hold the plastic manufacturers accountable. They are still fully profiting from a practice that is very damaging to the planet. In essence, the manufacturer is only concerned with creating demand for plastic, but once it is purchased, disposal becomes someone else’s problem. The only real solution to reducing plastic pollution is to focus on the beginning of its life cycle; we need to “turn off the tap” on plastic. Reducing plastic consumption (in contrast to recycling) holds the plastics industry accountable. 

Green Tip 

Begin the process of reducing your plastic consumption by thinking about and listing the types of plastic products that you use regularly. Attempt to prioritize them in terms of reducing or eliminating their use. 

By Peter Diaz , Service Learning & Immersion Coordinator and Religion Teacher, Mercy High School Burlingame 

For years, San Francisco has required its residences to compost food scraps. Each household was given a small green bin that fits underneath the kitchen sink. Everything from food scraps to eggs shells and even paper towels is collected. The city’s food scraps are turned into rich compost for the wineries and residences.  

Here’s what I have learned about keeping your kitchen compost clean and reducing potential odors.  

1.  Line the compost bin with a newspaper, old paper bag that held your lunch or old deli meat wax paper. This helps empty the compost pail neatly without scraps sticking to it. 

2. Keep the pail open. When you close the lid, it activates the decomposition by containing moisture.  

3. Empty your pail every night into a bigger compost bin kept outside. 

4. Keep the bigger compost bin lid outside open to slow the decomposition and reduce the smell.  

5. If you happen to throw away food scraps that contain meat, which we are allowed to compost in San Francisco, add baking soda into the bin. It helps keep the odor under control. 

 Enjoy composting! 

By Matthew Hansen, Coordinator of the Community Garden of the Sisters of Saint Joseph, Baden, Pennsylvania

Composting takes time! The pile on the right is located on the property of the Sisters of St. Joseph in Baden, PA. It has been building for over a year and a half, and we’ve been using the finished compost across the grounds and gardens. A lot of the “green” comes from kitchen scraps, which we empty here every day to every other day. The brown mostly comes from leaves and straw we use in our garden beds. . Along with adding the “green” and “brown” to the compost pile , we’re also mixing it around – keeping it loose and allowing air to reach all the parts. Without mixing in air, you create an anerobic environment which promotes the growth of bacteria, which will produce a sour smell. . There is a lot of matter in these piles, so we use a tractor with a bucket loader to both turn the pile and transport the compost around the grounds. 

The fresh “greens” coming from the kitchen are stored in 5-gallon buckets in a walk-in cooler (shown above in the picture on the right). Notice how we are covering two full buckets to keep in the smell/odors. The cooler temperatures in the cooler also help reduce the smell before we’re able to pick up the buckets and bring them to the pile.  

For reference, the chart below represents a general guide of what to compost. 

By Jason Giovannetonne, Climate and Sustainability Director 

The next step when beginning a compost pile is to gather the materials that will be used to create the compost pile.  Four components are required to make a basic compost pile: greens, browns, water, and air.  Greens consist of moist and fresh kitchen scraps, which are a rich source of nitrogen.  Browns consist of dry leaves and twigs that provide the required carbon.  The microorganisms that break these materials down into soil require a balanced diet of nitrogen for protein and carbon for energy.  The ideal mix is to add twice as much brown material as green. Then layer them like lasagna.  To minimize odor and unwanted critters, always cover the greens with the browns when adding material.  Finally, if you would like to speed up the composting process, you can mix the pile once every few weeks. Even without mixing, the pile will decompose in about 10 to 12 months. 

Here are some examples of greens and browns. 

Greens: grass clippings, weeds, manure, vegetable and fruit scraps, coffee grounds, eggshells, tea bags  

Browns: grass clippings, dry leaves, saw dust, shredded newspapers, brown grass clippings, cut-up cardboard 

Green Tip 

Continue discussing the potential of locating a compost pile at your property and considering what type of bin or structure you would like to use to contain your pile. Happy composting! 

By Jason Giovannetonne, Climate and Sustainability Director 

 Composting is important to waste reduction.   For the next few weeks, we will outline simple steps for composting. The first step is to locate your compost pile and select the bin or type of structure you would like to use.  The following video does a great job providing a detailed overview of how to start composting. 

Compost Pile/Bin Location: Select a location that is in the shade and at the top of a slope if there is one. Planting in the shade prevents plants from growing on your compost pile. The uphill end of a slope is recommended because compost is much more dense and heavier than the ingredients you use to create the pile; it will be easier to haul the finished compost downhill when needed. Your compost pile should not be too far from where you will be using the compost.   

Bin Type: You can use a simple open structure such as the wooden one shown in the video or a more elaborate (and typically plastic) option that facilitates mixing and aeration to increase the speed of the compost process.  There is no correct answer here; it really comes down to individual preference.   

Green Tip 

Identify a good location on your property for a compost pile. Determine which type of bin you prefer.  A quick internet search should provide many options to consider. 

By Marianne Comfort, Mercy Justice Team 

On March 24^th we marked the eighth anniversary of Pope Francis’ encyclical, Laudato Si’. In this document the pope invites us to ecological conversion and action flowing out of the realization that everything is connected; we can’t address social injustices without also addressing environmental degradation, and vice versa. 

“Our goal is …to become painfully aware, to dare to turn what is happening to the world into our own personal suffering and thus to discover what each of us can do about it,” Pope Francis wrote (paragraph #19). 

This year the Laudato Si Movement chose “Hope for the Earth. Hope for Humanity” as the theme of Laudato Si Week, the days immediately leading up to and following the encyclical’s anniversary. 

Pope Francis himself speaks to this theme: “Human beings, while capable of the worst, are also capable of rising above themselves, choosing again what is good, and making a new start.” (#205) 

He writes that there is “a nobility in the duty to care for creation through little daily actions” and that “we must not think that these efforts are not going to change the world. They benefit society…for they call forth a goodness which, albeit unseen, inevitably tends to spread.” (#211-212) 

Green Tip: 

Watch The Letter, a film that explores Laudato Si’ through the perspectives of five people who travel to the Vatican to meet with the pope. They include a young man struggling with both climate change and poverty in Senegal; an Indigenous leader in Brazil defending the rainforest from extractive industries; a teenage girl committed to climate activism; and two marine biologists from Hawaii. Renew your commitment to living more sustainably in light of their stories. 

By Mike Poulin, Justice Resource Manager

Capitalism is another significant obstacle to sustainability. Companies focus on profit to gain wealth and fuel growth. Many companies’ profits rely on selling products. Making products that are disposable or irreparable that quickly become obsolete or unstylish means that companies sell more products to make more profit. We can resist the pull of capitalism by declining to buy single-use items, repairing possessions when they break and resisting the latest trends and fashions so that we aren’t always purchasing the latest thing. 

By Mike Poulin, Justice Resource Manager

Consumerism is a significant obstacle to sustainability. Especially in the U.S., we exist in an economy and a culture that is constantly providing new things while also telling us “More is better.” For the next month, before buying something new, ask yourself the question, “Do I really need that?” Keep track of how many times the answer is “no.” See if you can get in the habit of reducing your consumerism. 

By Sister Rose Marie Tresp 

The clothing we wear has an unseen price on the lives of workers and the environment.  

In the effort to produce clothes more cheaply and quickly, companies often turn to workers in underdeveloped nations, where they are paid unfair wages and may work in slave-like conditions that contribute to the cycle of poverty. In garment factories, children may be put to work at any or all stages of the supply chain, from the production of cotton, to the yarn spinning, to the final cuts and sewing stages.  

Clothing production also creates a significant environmental impact. There is a massive amount of waste created as newer fashion trends push older ones into landfills. Modern textiles also rely heavily on petrochemical products that come from many of the same oil and gas companies driving greenhouse gas emissions. Today, in fact, fashion accounts for up to 10% of global carbon dioxide output—more than international flights and shipping combined, according to the United Nations Environment Programme. It also accounts for a fifth of the 300 million tons of plastic produced globally each year. 

Green tip: 
Buy secondhand clothing to keep textiles out of landfills and reduce the demand for plastics in fashion. If everyone bought one secondhand item of clothing a year instead of new clothing, this would be the greenhouse gas emissions equivalent of taking ½ million cars off the road.