Happy Earth Day!

Happy Earth Day!

Today I’d like to share a little bit about the things we do at DOOR Atlanta to try and love Mother Earth a little bit more. Since the summer of 2008, DOOR Atlanta along with the other DOOR cities stopped using plastic water bottles in our Discover mission trip program. Instead we bought Nalgene water bottles that we check out to each participant for the entire week. We then wash and sterilize the water bottles at the end of the week and use them again for the next group. We’ve been using the same water bottles for the past three years and have substantially reduced the amount of recycling we generate during a Discover mission trip week. That same year we also bought cloth re-usable lunch bags, in cooperation with DOOR San Antonio, from a sewing coop. Each week we recycle glass, cardboard, aluminum and plastic, in an effort to keep our trash as limited as possible. Lastly, this past summer we made the switch from using plastic grocery bags to reusable grocery bags. Not only does this help us re-use our bags instead of using them once and recycling them, but it sends a strong message to our Discover mission trip groups that we value earth sustainability as part of our ministry. It is quite a site to see us unload 60 bags of groceries from reusable bags. We still have ways we can grow in our care for creation in our Discover program, but I'd like to believe we have a firm foundation on which to build.


Our Discover program is not our only program that is stretching itself in regards to creation care. Our Dwell houses have taken some unique steps towards Earth Care as well. Both of our houses are avid recyclers and composters. In addition, the houses are very interested in eating more locally grown food. And by locally grown, I mean in their backyard. The Grant Park house got chickens this year and has just recently stopped buying eggs from the grocery store and is able to sustain its egg usage entirely by their chickens. The Capitol View house has spent most of this year researching how to turn their backyard which was filled with rocks and trash, into a garden. It is a true resurrection project. They are just now planting their first seeds and are excited and hopeful about supplementing their food budget in the future with produce from their backyard. There has always been a tension in our Dwell houses between the desire to eat organic, locally grown food and the limits of their budget, but I am excited to see the creative ways they have approached these issues and tried to eat faithfully. Both houses have explored being part of a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) and I am hopeful they will figure out a way to make this work within their food budgets.


Finally, I got word from Presbyterians for Earth Care (PEC) about their bottled water campaign. I share it with you in the hopes you might pledge to stop using plastic water bottles as well. PEC writes:

“Annie Leonard, who previously brought us the online "The Story of Stuff" has made a new fast-paced online film that tackles bottled water. "The Story of Bottled Water" outlines how consumption of bottled water went from something considered laughable (as it costs as much as 2000 times the amount of tap water) to such a high-demand product that the US consumes a half a billion bottles of water each week. The film is a great primer in many issues related to bottled water, including the justice aspect of where our bottles are sent to be recycled. (Leonard found that some of these bottles that we stick in our recycling bins are actually shipped to India, and instead of being recycled, they end up becoming a waste problem for India to deal with.) Watch "The Story of Bottled Water" and learn more about issues surrounding bottled water from the Presbyterians for Earth Care's bottled water campaign. PEC also has a bottled water pledge that you can sign. Pledge not to drink bottled water unless the tap water in your area is truly unsafe, and share your knowledge with friends and family, who may not realize that producing bottles for bottled water for US consumption uses enough oil each year to fuel one million cars.”


Happy Earth Day!

~Jannan Thomas, DOOR Atlanta City Director