What to Give Up for Lent? Smoking? Cursing? How About Plastic?
- 6 years ago
What to Give Up for Lent? Smoking? Cursing? How About Plastic?
“I think it might well be a first for us, to have an entire Lent program on an environmental issue,
but it is very much an integral part of what the church is about,” said Ruth Knight, the Church of England’s environmental policy officer.
Last month, a ban on plastic microbeads in cosmetic products took effect in Britain,
and Prime Minister Theresa May’s government committed Britain to a 25-year environmental plan that includes eliminating most plastic waste.
Specifically, the church wants people to avoid the plastic consumer products and packaging
that have become a major environmental problem, polluting oceans and rivers, fouling beaches, killing wildlife and clogging landfills.
Last fall, a BBC documentary series on the oceans, Blue Planet II, which dealt extensively with
environmental dangers, including from plastics, was the most-viewed program in Britain
The Church of England has asked people to add a new culprit to the list of ills they
forsake for the six weeks of penance that begin on Ash Wednesday: plastics.
The church’s “Lent Plastic Challenge” arrives on a wave of anti-plastic sentiment and legislation in Britain and across Europe, as more people conclude
that the first element of the motto “reduce, reuse, recycle” should take precedence.
“I think it might well be a first for us, to have an entire Lent program on an environmental issue,
but it is very much an integral part of what the church is about,” said Ruth Knight, the Church of England’s environmental policy officer.
Last month, a ban on plastic microbeads in cosmetic products took effect in Britain,
and Prime Minister Theresa May’s government committed Britain to a 25-year environmental plan that includes eliminating most plastic waste.
Specifically, the church wants people to avoid the plastic consumer products and packaging
that have become a major environmental problem, polluting oceans and rivers, fouling beaches, killing wildlife and clogging landfills.
Last fall, a BBC documentary series on the oceans, Blue Planet II, which dealt extensively with
environmental dangers, including from plastics, was the most-viewed program in Britain
The Church of England has asked people to add a new culprit to the list of ills they
forsake for the six weeks of penance that begin on Ash Wednesday: plastics.
The church’s “Lent Plastic Challenge” arrives on a wave of anti-plastic sentiment and legislation in Britain and across Europe, as more people conclude
that the first element of the motto “reduce, reuse, recycle” should take precedence.