eco-lent: week 1, day 6, what does plastic have to do with lent?

I can't say that I'm a major expert on what Lent means, because coming from a Quaker tradition, I was an adult before I ever heard the term. But, according to the all-knowing Wikipedia (just don't tell my students I'm citing it as a source):

The traditional purpose of Lent is the preparation of the believer [for Easter] through prayer, penance, repentance of sins, almsgiving, atonement and self-denial.

My lenten practice is to spend time each day of Lent focusing on a weekly eco-challenge from the Northwest Earth Institute's book, "A World of Health: Connecting People, Place & Planet."As far back as I can remember, I've felt a deep sense that the God in whom I put my faith and trust is a God of love--in fact IS love, embodies love, through the person of Jesus and through us. Love isn't just a nice feeling, but it's an intentional act of choosing to live in right relationship with those around us. I've had a hard time, however, going from this macro-level down to the particulars. What does it mean to put this kind of just-love into action? When I can see so many areas of injustice in the world, how do I keep myself from feeling paralyzed? How do I gather the courage to take a tiny step in the direction of a more just world?

In the past few years my leadings have centered around caring for the Earth. This is the place that is put in our care. If we take the creation story in Genesis seriously, God created everything and called it good. God delighted in each and every new aspect of creation, and encouraged it all to flourish, even before human beings came on the scene. God told the fish, birds and even the sea monsters to "be fruitful and multiply" on the fifth day, while human beings were created on the sixth day of the story. (I think this was pointed out to me in Ellen Davis' Scripture, Culture & Agriculture.) It seems to me that we as people are often getting stuck on ourselves, wanting ourselves and our people to be special in a way that others are not. While this is true, it's not completely true: each of my kids is special to me in a different way, but not one more than the other. In Amos 9:7, God reminds the Israelites that they are special, but not exclusively so:

Are you not like the Ethiopians to me, O people of Israel? says the Lord. Did I not bring Israel up from the land of Egypt, and the Philistines from Caphtor and the Arameans from Kir?

Yes, God brought the Israelites out of Egypt and chose them for the special task of bringing forth the Messiah into the world, but other than that, they're not really any more special than God's other children.

I wonder if this is true for us and the rest of creation. Yes, God cares about us, and we are chosen for the particular task of caring for the rest of this planet. But we aren't any more special to God than everything else.

How does that feel? To me that stings a little. I want to be special. I want human beings to have a special place in God's heart, to be the exclusive species that truly matters to God--just like the people of Israel wanted to be God's special tribe and nation. And we ARE special to God, as the caretakers of God's beloved creation.

The problem is, we're not doing a very good job. We think we're so special that we can use the entire creation for our own benefit and comfort.

So for me, letting go of this need to be special, of this sense of entitlement to use the produce of the Earth for my own needs first, paying attention to the ways my actions are impacting the Earth and everything in it--these are particularly lenten reflections and actions. I'm praying to God about how I can live as a more faithful follower: how I can love God and my neighbor as myself more purely. I hear that I need to care for the Earth. I recognize my own "sin" in this situation: my misuse of the world's resources, my attitude of entitlement that expects to have everything I want, when I want it. I repent of these actions and attitudes, and I live out self-denial by giving up some of my comforts.

Self-denial is one of the most difficult ones, for me. For one thing, it smacks of holier-than-thou martyr-like ideology, where I feel more pious than everyone else who isn't doing this holy act of self-denial. For another thing, women in particular have been encouraged in Western culture to be the ones who deny themselves constantly, for the sake of their family and community. I don't want to fall into the trap of a self-denying woman who doesn't stand up for herself and her own legitimate needs.

At the same time, self-denial is difficult because of our culture that expects everything, more, better, faster, stronger, always MORE. I find myself falling into this trap. I want everything in my life to be more convenient, more efficient, even a better use of energy and resources. And I want it NOW! I don't want to have to practice self-discipline or delayed gratification. I so often live into my culture's tyranny of the "now," where waiting is simply unacceptable, and going without something that is desired is some form of cruel and unusual punishment.

So in this lenten journey so far this week, I've realized how addicted I am to plastic, to the convenience of something that is cheap, easy to use, doesn't break, and gets thrown away or recycled so I can get the next "now" thing. I'm addicted to the disposable culture, and my home shows it.

It's painful to recognize my complicity in this system that creates injustice--this world where plastics and people get thrown away with little regard, where we wage wars over the resources to make plastic, where the livelihoods of people the world over are based on an imaginary economic system of stocks that demand ever more and larger markets, and that grind people to death like so many plastic parts.

Not only is this a systemic issue, but this is an issue that affects my very own body and health, along with the health of my family. My laziness about not looking critically at the food and food packaging system means that my kids have been eating off dishes that are leaching harmful chemicals into their bodies their whole lives. We have laws against parents smoking in their homes. What about parents who microwave plastic dishes, or who make their kids hot drinks in plastic cups? I would not stand idly by and let my kids eat lead paint. How is this any different?

How much of my own ease and comfort, my own ability to have everything I want and to have it NOW, am I willing to give up for the sake of the health of this planet, put under my care? How much am I willing to give up for the sake of my children and their children, for my own health?

On the flip side, where's the line between penitential lenten self-sacrifice, and over-the-top paranoid anxiety that leaches life out of people just as surely as stressed plastics?

It's a work in progress, friends, but I'm grateful to have you along for the journey.

eco-lent: week 1, days 4-5, purging

Purging plastics

Continuing my lenten practice this season, I'm still working on the BPA-free eco-challenge from Northwest Earth Institute's book, "A World of Health: Connecting People, Place & Planet." This is where it gets particularly Lent-related because I worked on purging my kitchen of as many plastics as possible. The Environmental Working Group lists BPA as one of the "dirty dozen" of top endocrine disruptors (see below for definition), up there with lead, mercury and arsenic.

I actually didn't find any plastics in my kitchen the contained BPA, but the more I started looking into the effects of plastics on our bodies, the more I realized that it's not just BPA that's the problem. BPA is the most hazardous of the materials, but it's not the only one that can be harmful. A study in the July 2011 issue of Environmental Health Perspectives, "Most Plastic Products Release Estrogenic Chemicals: A Potential Health Problem that Can be Solved" (Vol. 119, No. 7, pp. 989-996) tested a wide variety of plastics (over 500 types) and concluded (as the title states) that most of them contain estrogenic chemicals that leach out when used normally. A major problem is that plastics manufacturers don't have to list all the additives in their products, presumably due to keeping their trade secrets safe. Many of these additives have "estrogenic activity" and are endocrine disruptors:

Chemicals that mimic or antagonize the actions of naturally occurring estrogens are defined as having estrogenic activity (EA), which is the most common form of endocrine disruptor activity. (989)

This is problematic because:

In mammals, chemicals having EA can produce many health-related problems, such as early puberty in females, reduced sperm counts, altered functions of reproductive organs, obesity, altered sex-specific behaviors, and increased rates of some breast, ovarian, testicular and prostate cancers. (989)

Fetuses and young children are most susceptible, but the EA can affect adults as well. These EA chemicals leach out most when the plastic is "stressed," which means fairly normal activities like if it's left in the sun, microwaved, exposed to boiling water or put in the dishwasher. The older the plastic is, the more likely it is to leach because it's been more exposed to those stressors.

Based on that data, I started to get rid of as much plastic in my kitchen as possible, regardless of whether it is BPA-free.

My general practice has been to reuse plastic containers and store things in them that I buy in bulk or that come in boxes with plastic bag liners that get annoying to keep in a cupboard (e.g. cereal or crackers). This seemed like a pretty good ecological practice: reusing containers that otherwise would get thrown away or recycled. While this is relatively correct, as I've been looking into the effects of plastics on our bodies, I've come to feel that this is perhaps not the best way to store food. Also, we used plastic dishes for our kids, to reduce dish breakage, but these are all now quite old and scratched, which makes them more susceptible to leakage of harmful chemicals into our food.

I rounded up all the glass jars sitting around in various storage locations, waiting to be filled with this summer's canned goods, and I stored my dry goods in them instead, for now. I was thinking I might go to thrift stores and collect glass and ceramic containers in the future so I can reuse the canning jars for canning. I can also start collecting glass containers, such as those pasta sauce jars you see in the picture, and reusing them. But for now, the picture shows a couple shelves of dry and canned goods. You can see that it's a work in progress: there are still some plastic containers because I ran out of jars.

Also, much to my chagrin, I noted in my last post that most metal cans actually have a plastic (epoxy) coating! I'm not sure what to do about this yet. Some of the things I get as canned food is more out of laziness anyway, such as cooked or refried beans, which would be fairly easy to make from dried beans and store in glass.

You'll be happy to note that hardly any of these plastics actually contained BPA. All of the containers and dishes in the first picture were made from the "safe" plastics: #1, #2, #4 or #5. All of my Tupperware-like containers are from these safer numbers as well, and for the moment I'm keeping those, for lack of better storage containers for leftovers and for frozen foods.

The one thing I did find that was one of the dangerous numbers was my box of plasticware, which is #6. This number doesn't contain BPA, but it contains another harmful chemical, polystyrene, which is an endocrine disruptor/exhibiting estrogen activity (disrupts your hormone system, as stated above, by acting like the hormone estrogen, and causing your hormonal system to react in strange ways including developing reproductive issues and/or cancer cells). So these plastic forks, spoons and knives that we put directly into our mouths are made from one of the worst type of plastic.

There were a few items in my kitchen that didn't have a number on them. There were a couple plastic bowls with no numbers. Some said they're made from melamine, which apparently is a kind of plastic that doesn't have any BPA but is probably on the same level as all the other plastics. I guess the fact that it doesn't have a recycling number means that it's not recyclable, though.

The one that surprised me and gave me pause was my Brita water filter. There are no numbers on it, and the whole thing is made of plastic. We drink water from the Brita filter because it's supposed to be better for us, right? But if all this about plastics leaching chemicals into food and drinks is true, are these filtration systems more helpful or harmful? If you just run water through a system attached to your faucet, even if it's plastic it might not be too bad since it doesn't sit in there for a long time. But what about these plastic pitchers?

I found another blogger who helpfully contacted both Brita and Pur to find out about the plastics used in their water pitchers and shared their responses. Both claim their pitchers are made from BPA-free plastics, but the numbers aren't listed because the pitchers can't be recycled. But, Brita's pitchers are made from polypropylene and styrene, the latter of which is supposed to be fairly harmful, and the pitcher itself is made from that type. Pur responded by listing the plastic numbers that would be on there if it could be recycled, which are #5, #6 and #7. #5 is OK, but #6 and #7 are more harmful.

eco-lent: week 1, day 3, research

If you missed my earlier posts this week, I'm doing a lenten practice where I take on an eco-challenge each week from a workbook by the Northwest Earth Institute called "A World of Health: Connecting People, Place & Planet." This week's eco-challenge is to eat as BPA-free as possible. I'm finding out this is easier said than done!

Yesterday I wondered about products from Annie's and Stoneyfield, wondering whether these companies that emphasize organic, non-GMO and hormone-free ingredients were silently killing us with plastic, but I received word back from my comments to these companies that there is NO BPA IN THEIR CONTAINERS. Woo-hoo!

At this point, my questions about this challenge center around two areas: what kinds of plastics contain BPA, and what's the big deal--what does it do to us? Today I'll focus on the first of these questions--what has BPA, anyway? What is it that we should be avoiding? Perhaps if I was telling this story systematically I would do the questions the other way around, but I don't care, this is what stood out to me today.

I wish I had time to do more in-depth research, but from my quick perusal of the web and thanks to my good friend Becky, I found a website called the Environmental Working Group, which has all sorts of useful information, and some other websites and data on BPA. The Environmental Working Group has a helpful article entitled "Tips to avoid BPA exposure." Here are some of the highlights from that article and elsewhere:

• Plastics to avoid: hard plastics #3, #6, #7 and "PC." (Only 7 & PC have BPA, but the others have DEHP or Polystyrene, which are other endocrine disruptors, which I'll research and explain tomorrow or soon.)
• Plastics without BPA (or other harmful additives): #1, #2, #4, #5.
• As probably most of us who have kids know, it's really bad to feed your babies from bottles with BPA. If you feed them liquid formula, a lot of BPA gets into the formula, too, from the cans, although powders don't have this problem.
• The big issue for adults is that metal cans are lined with plastic/epoxy that contains BPA, which means that most of the time when we're eating canned foods, we're ingesting BPA. This goes for metal water bottles and coffee cups, too, unless they're stainless steel.
• It's especially bad to heat plastics with BPA and then eat/drink the contents. (Even the better plastics shouldn't be heated because it releases chemicals that don't generally leach otherwise.)
• Also bad is eating/drinking from plastics that are scratched.
• Off-brand plastic wrap and sandwich bags seem to be dangerous sometimes as well. The following video says Glad cling wrap is OK, as are Ziplock bags and Saran Wrap, and what you want to look for on these is "PVC-free."

Still reading? Awesome! Because that was all the good news.
The bad news? It's likely that no plastic is really safe to eat or drink from. Ugh. The main problem with BPA is that it's a "hormone disruptor," or they have chemicals that mimic "estrogenic activity." More on that tomorrow/soon. The kicker: these are found in food that has been in all kinds of plastic, regardless of whether it has BPA in it. Other chemicals that are used to make plastic have these estrogen mimickers in them, too, they're just not BPA so no one is concerned because BPA is the one that has the most research against it.
Tomorrow's job? Go through my kitchen and look for plastics 3, 6, 7 and PC and recycle them.

eco-lent: week 1, day 2, addicted to plastic

Plastics to recycle or throw away after a trip to the store

Yesterday I shared about my lenten practice this year: working each week on an eco-challenge from a workbook by Northwest Earth Institute, "A World of Health: Connecting People, Place & Planet." I may not (probably won't) post something every day, but today I have a bit of time and I've been thinking about the first eco-challenge and how difficult it is.

This week's eco-challenge is to eat a BPA-free meal, or eat BPA-free for a whole day, or even for the whole week. BPA stands for bisphenol A, a plastic additive that is linked to a range of health issues.

Plastic containers for recycling

It's nice to think about eating BPA-free meals, but in assessing my habits and the ways foods are packaged, this is a lot harder than it sounds! I went shopping today and came home with a pile of plastics that went in the trash or recycling, and I also had several containers that were used and recycled throughout the day. Also, I took my reusable bags, but ended up with more groceries than bags and had to use a few plastic ones. I'm not sure whether all these types of plastic use BPA yet--I need to do some research. But whether or not they use BPA, many of them can't be recycled (or recycling them isn't supported in my/most area(s), and so there is SO MUCH trash going to landfills each day. This may not be as much of a current health hazard to us, but can't be good as we think long-term into the future of our kids and grandkids.

Of all these plastics, only one said that it was BPA-free: the Langer's apple juice bottle.

Many of these products are organic. The milk was rBST-free; the yogurts and peanut butter touted their organic ingredients.

I got some Annie's products, and the boxes were made from post-consumer waste and had little windmills that showed they were produced using sustainable energy, but there was nothing on the packaging that mentioned what kind of plastic was used and whether or not it contained BPA. (I did notice on their website, however, that they say less than 1% of packaging, by weight, is plastic--but of course plastic bags don't weigh very much! I just sent them a comment to ask them about whether their plastic uses BPA.)

I had some Stoneyfield Yo-Baby yogurt, USDA organic ingredients with no hormones, pesticides or genetically modified foods (although why they feel the need to put sugar in baby yogurt is beyond me!), so all the ingredients were "healthy" but the packaging didn't mention what it was made of. Also, when I fill up the sink with hot water from the tap, the containers shrivel, making me wonder how safe that particular plastic is and how much of it leeches into my kiddos as they're eating the product. (I sent them a comment, too--we'll see if I learn anything in the next few days.)

Even at home it's hard to not put things in plastic. I have plastic containers to store leftovers, and I reuse large plastic jars to store things like rice, crackers, cereal and quinoa. I send things to school in plastic containers in my son's lunch. Even the dishes my kids eat off are plastic, so they won't break if (when) they drop them. Though we try to reuse Ziplock bags, they still are made of plastic.

I do try to avoid microwaving things in plastic or pouring boiling water into plastic, but at times I do pour boiling water over frozen food to thaw it enough to get it out of the plastic container. This probably destroys all the health benefits of storing away my local, organic produce for use in the winter!

So today, perhaps I'm on the first step of the 12-steps to recovery program: recognizing I have a problem. I'm addicted to plastic.

The second step is to "believe that a power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity." I guess that's what Lent is all about, right? It's about re-orienting ourselves in such a way that we recognize our own weaknesses, our own powerlessness to do anything about it, and the fact that God has already done what needs to be done, all we have to do is follow. Might this extend to plastic addictions? Do we have the ability to trust that God is the God even of plastics manufacturing and the structure of our culture's food system? Do we have the audacity to imagine a different way, and to let God imagine it into existence through our lives?

New goal: eat a meal tomorrow where none of my family members eat off plastic dishes that contain BPA, or about which I don't know if they contain BPA.

Second new goal: research the ways that BPA harms us. Is it through direct contact between the food and the plastic? Is it through trash breaking down and getting into our water, and other avenues that it can enter the food system? What are the major types of plastic-to-food leakage to avoid? What kind of plastics contain BPA?

eco-lent: week 1

Today marks the beginning of Lent, the 40 days leading up to Easter. As a Quaker, perhaps it's not completely "kosher" to practice Lent, and I discussed my thoughts on that way back in 2006, here. For those of you who weren't raised in a liturgical tradition and/or who don't know much about Lent, it's a time to prepare our lives and hearts for the death and resurrection of Jesus. Generally, this is about "giving something up," a sign of our participation with God in the sacrifice of dying on the cross.

My F/friend Beth over at the "Five Kids is a Lot of Kids" blog is practicing "getting rid of crap" this Lent, spending 15 minutes each day focusing on one small area of her house or project she can complete in order to get rid of the junk in her house...which all of us totally know can accumulate if we have ANY kids, or if we ARE kids...or if we USED TO BE kids...at least if you're ME. She inspired me to practice Lent a bit more intentionally this year, and while I definitely need to do the 15 minutes a day of getting rid of crap, what I've decided to do for my personal practice is to do a weekly eco-challenge.

As I said in my recent post, and probably most of my posts from the last year (of which there apparently weren't many), I've been feeling led to try to live more sustainably: to live in such a way that the Earth can replenish itself each year, that I'm not taking more than my share, and that I practice the Quaker value of simplicity. But this is seriously HARD! For one thing, it's hard to get rid of my sense of entitlement that everything I want should be available to me at all times. This has never been true for anyone else in the whole history of the world before the last couple generations. Why should it be true for us? What is it doing to us psychologically, socially and ecologically to live in this way?

So for Lent, I'm attempting to take a few tiny steps towards more sustainability, toward taking care of this Earth that is under our charge and in which we participate.

I'm getting ready to co-teach a class this summer entitled "Poverty & Restorative Earthkeeping" with my colleague Dan Brunner. I'm really excited about this course! One of the books we're considering using is from the Northwest Earth Institute called "A World of Health: Connecting People, Place & Planet." It's a workbook you could use with a small group in your meeting or congregation, if you want, and it's also suitable for undergrad or seminary courses.

At any rate, this book suggests weekly eco-challenges: ways you can attempt to practice living more healthily for the sake of yourself, others and the planet. The first week's eco-challenge is to try not to eat foods packaged in plastic that contains BPA (bisphenol A). They suggest either planning one meal that is BPA-free, one day's worth of food, or even attempting the whole week without foods packaged in plastic containing BPA. Why? BPA is:

"a chemical that mimics estrogen and is raising concern among consumers and many scientists for its links to a host of health issues: prostate, breast and testicular cancer; lower sperm counts; obesity; aggression in girls; reproductive and neurological defects; cardiovascular disease and type II diabetes." NWEI "A World of Health," 2010, p. 26

This week I'm going to be more aware of the foods I eat and whether they are packaged in plastic. If they are, I'll look at the labels to see if they say whether or not they contain BPA.

If you're interested in learning more about this workbook, here's a helpful video from NWEI:

how we're getting around

As I've shared before, over the last few years I've felt a growing call to do what I can to try to live in a way that shows more care for the Earth. This is our home, the place God put in our care. We are part of "nature"; it is not a tool for us to use as we wish. What we do to the planet, we do to ourselves.

With that in mind, I wanted to share a couple things about what we've been doing lately to try to live that out, not only with our beliefs but with our actions.

Yesterday, we leased a Nissan Leaf, which is a fully electric car. We've been thinking about this for a while, but until recently, it hasn't seemed practical or affordable. At this point, leases are extremely affordable. It's easy to charge at home with no extra equipment required, except the cord you receive with the car. It rides a lot like a Toyota Prius, but never kicks on the gas! It's really quiet. It actually beeps when you back up, so that pedestrians have some warning. So far we really like it! It can go over 100 miles on a charge if you're driving carefully (i.e., not testing its acceleration), and there are charging stations all over now.

When we're not in our car, we have some new wheels of the 2-wheel variety as well! For our eldest's 7th birthday, he got a bike with gears so he can keep up a little better. (In the photo, he was just trying to bike around to see what it felt like in the snow...we didn't actually make him ride it to get places in the snow!) Also, our youngest is 3, and the other day I tried him out on the trailer bike, and he can reach the pedals! He's been enjoying riding around town. Usually I still bring the bike trailer to put all our stuff in. This means we can go to the grocery store and get a whole load rather than having to limit what we can carry home. It's great to get good exercise as we do the things we need to do throughout the day, and to know we're not spewing as many fossil fuels into the air each time we drive somewhere.

published: geez magazine, "contemplation leads to peace"

In the most recent issue of Geez Magazine (Fall 2013), you'll find an article by me called "Contemplation Leads to Peace." The full text isn't available online, but you can order a paper or digital copy online. Geez is a great magazine, whose tagline is "holy mischief in an age of fast faith." They attempt to be a magazine that appeals to people who are interested in social justice and faith, but who question some of the ways that Christianity is expressed in American culture. Here's an excerpt from their "About Us" page:

A bustling spot for the over-churched, out-churched, un-churched and maybe even the un-churchable. A location just beyond boring bitterness. A place for wannabe contemplatives, front-line world-changers and restless cranks.

This issue was entitled "The Peace Issue," so I thought I'd give it a go and submit something. The piece I ended up writing focused on the idea that healthy peace activism comes out of a space of spiritual/mystical contemplation, and gave a couple examples of people who lived in that way.