The UCC Council for Climate Justice sponsored a webinar at the General Synod

Five resolutions were presented with each speaker allotted 10 minutes. The topics were:

Watch the webinar:

Surely Parkway is far ahead of many churches in the usage of Styrofoam. However, we are all faced with the issue of restaurants bringing us containers to take home the food we couldn’t eat, and those are quite often Styrofoam.  Asking for aluminum foil instead is good …except for items such as gravy…as the foil can be washed and recycled.  The better solution would be to put a reusable container in your bag before leaving for the restaurant or how about leaving a few in the car along with your reusable bags!? This has worked well for many of us on your Sustainability Committee.

Maine and Maryland have just become the first states to ban polystyrene foam cups and containers.  Legislatures in New Jersey, Connecticut and Vermont are considering similar bans.

“Nothing we use for five minutes should be allowed to pollute our planet for hundreds of years,”said Alex Truelove, director of MoPirg’s (Missouri Public Interest Research Group) national network’s Zero Waste campaign. “I’m happy to know Maryland and Maine agree. Who’s next?”

“Styrofoam” is a registered TM of Dow Chemical. Styrene, a probable carcinogen and benzene a known carcinogen in humans are used in the production of plastic foam. These containers leach styrene when they come into contact with warm food or drink, alcohol, oils, and acidic foods such as fruit juices. (Sims, 2016).

They can NOT be recycled, and some estimates put the lifespan of

Styrofoam in a landfill at 500 years (SEJ Issue Backgrounder)