The climate is changing. How we as consumers interact with business has a huge impact on the environment. As Christians and Episcopalians, what is our role and responsibility in our daily living as consumers? This week we continue our Lenten series, For the Beauty of the Earth by exploring the relationship of how we do business.

What is the impact?
More than 380 million plastic bags are thrown away in the United States every year, and those plastic bags can take up to 1,000 years to degrade in landfills. And while paper bags do eventually biodegrade, an estimated 14 million trees a year have to be cut down to make 10 billion paper bags. It is possible to change this. In Ireland, a fee was instituted for plastic bags; people switched to carrying their own cloth bags; plastic shopping bag use declined 94%. This is a simple change anyone can make – you can even use an EPPN or ONE Episcopalian cloth bag!

Small Changes Make a Difference
Not only does junk mail clog up your mailbox, it also requires an estimated 100 million trees and 20 billion gallons of water every year. But as consumers we can stop the unnecessary junk mail by registering for a service like greendimes that stops unwanted junk mail and plants trees.

If we stopped printing our ATM receipts, it would save a roll of paper more than 2 billion feet long—enough to circle the equator more than 15 times.

Earlier in this series we suggested reading the paper online instead of taking it in print. Did you know that one four-foot high stack of newspapers is the equivalent of one 40 foot fir tree. If you can’t give up your print edition – be sure to recycle!

Each year at school, the average child dumps 67 pounds of lunchbox trash – their own wieght just in trash from lunch! This can be minimized by buying foods in larger packages and using reusable containers to divide individual servings.

Our impact on the environment can be imroved even more when we consider not only recylcilng items, but consider the implications of a product’s production as well as its disposal.

The farther an item is shipped the larger its carbon footprint – so look for local goods and produce and think twice about bottled water.We can also look for products that are not only recyclable but are made from recycled materials.

Lenten Discipline: Making a Change
This week focuses on your purchases. Reduce – do you really need the item? Re-use – is it something you could get second hand? Recycle – look for products are made from recycled materials and can be recycled or re-used.

More information about recycling and stewardship of consumption can be found here.