It's hard work saving the world....
My inlaws live on a farm, and throw all their rubbish (plastic, cardboard, glass - anything) in a pit in the ground and bury it. When we go camping with them, the campground even sorts its rubbish into 'brown glass', 'green glass', plastic Number 6', etc, but the inlaws prefer to chuck all their rubbish in a bag and throw it in the pit when they get home.
I am the person who, by hand, went through a rubbish bag full of plastic cups, plates, and, well, rubbish, after a work function last year in order to get out the recyclable stuff and put it in my recycling bin.
It really hurts me to see people living this way, espeically people in the older generation, who will die in the next 10-30 years, and this is the legacy they are leaving my generation. Thanks a bunch, gran.
It also really hurts me when these people are Christian. How are we caring for our bodies, our families, the world around us by consuming so much, wasting so much, caring so little for our future and our planet?
So this morning I suggested to the in-laws that "we" collect the recyclable waste and take it down to the town's recycling plant once a week. (Yes, just 15 minutes away from their house is a full recycling plant!!).
Stony silence. Icy looks. Then a 15 minute lecture about how I should look in my own backyard first, or start with the people who have a problem. Because there's nothing wrong with the way we do things, thank you very much.
Well I sure hope that at least a seed has been planted. That the angry reaction was a sign that I'd touched a raw nerve. Because I certainly wasn't criticising them or being rude, and yet they reacted quite badly. It's been pretty hard shutting my mouth for the 5+ weeks I've been here, but I'm glad I spoke up once.
I just can't digest this legacy we're leaving - farmers all over our country with piles and piles of rubbish buried under the ground. Factories discharging into rivers. Every product we buy wrapped in an acre of packaging that we then have to dispose of.
How do we buy out? Where can I get off?
