Tuesday, April 17, 2007

"Yea, all things which come of the earth, in the season thereof, are made for the benfit and the use of man...

both to please the eye and to gladden the heart; Yea, for food and for raiment, for taste and for smell, to strengthen the body an to enliven the soul. And it pleaseth God that he hath given all these things unto man; for unto this end were they made to be used, with judgment, not to excess, neither by extortion." Docterine & Covenants 59:18-20

I did a really enlightening thing a few weeks back. In my classes at school we had been studying ecology and current issues related to it. First may I say that it is our personal responsibility to take care of this beautiful planet that we were given stewardship over...and if you don't like a particular political party or person you should STILL support programs that contribute to the health of our home.
Anyhow, I invited the Salt Lake County Landfill to my classroom and it was a very eyeopening experience. Do you know that a landfill is very different from a dump. Landfills are scientifically constructed to protect ground water and the air. The methods they employ to take care of our trash are innovative and very necessary. They even capture the methane gas from decaying garbage and use it to power 2000 homes in Murray. What was really fascinating and inspiring is the fact that they actually do not let the garbage decompose because of the environmental contamination that can result through the process. So what that means is that every scrap of trash that we pitch into our garbage cans goes straight to the landfill to be smashed and buried forever! They actually pulled a newspaper from the landfill with the publishing date of 1969 and it was completely readable!
Another couple inspiring tid bits of info...milk jugs can be recycled to make fake wood which does not weather over time. And soda bottles can be recycled to make fleece sweaters. The Patagonia company uses 25 2L bottles to produce one sweater. Tin cans come from borax which is mined overseas and imported, so don't just through away soup cans!
Now, this all brings me to my original post which stated that I haven't been a fan of cloth diapers in the past, but with this on my conscious I have been considering the more friendly poop catchers...that is if/when (let's hope "when")I have another child.
In addition, we have been recycling everything we can at home and it is amazing how little "trash" we generate. We set out our garbage can maybe every other week. It makes me feel good to know I'm doing my part.
One of my students stated it best on their unit test..."It is awesome that I can make such a big difference with such little effort." It really doesn't take much extra effort but we can do so much good! Try it, it's fun!!

2 comments:

amylouwhosews said...

I love this scripture. We talked about it a lot in one of my Zoo classes at BYU. Hey check out my other blog (mommyandbeyond.blogspot.com) I tagged you!

Anonymous said...

Julie give me some Earth friendly tips. I try to do my part too.