Green Tips! – Live Christmas Trees
Every year at Christmas, up to 30 million live trees are sold in the US. While the debate continues with those asserting that artificial trees are the “greener” option compared to a cut tree used once, there are nuances to consider!
Most live Christmas trees are grown on farms, harvested, and a new tree is subsequently replanted. Live trees are actually more sustainable because they are biodegradable, and tree farms provide much the same benefit as neighborhood trees and forests such as cleaner air, removal of carbon, preventing soil erosion, and more.
With a little extra care, consumers of live Christmas trees can increase these benefits! Take some time this year to practice some responsible and environmentally conscious recycling modes, and advocate for some if your community doesn’t participate!
- Firewood: use those trunks, and branches, for OUTDOOR fires. Dry out the wood for several months.
- Mulch: Some communities will chip down your tree, either for community use or for your own gardens. Check out your local department of public works.
- Wildlife: Keep the tree in your yard and hang bird feeders – and watch your tree evolve into a bird sanctuary!
- Fish Feeder: a tree left in a pond becomes a reserve for fish! Over time, algae grows, providing food for fish and protects them from predators. Check with local officials to see if you can donate and drop your tree in a nearby lake or pond.
- Erosion barriers: If you live along the Schuylkill, communities may take your tree to stabilize river banks. Trees and their needles help retain the banks and vegetation and provide cover for birds in the winter.
- Compost: Pine needles can be added to compost piles
No-Plastics November/December
The Environmental Justice Team Invites Your Church to jump into: No-Plastics November/December. Eliminating single-use plastic from our lives will help reduce litter, ease landfills, and reduce the use of petroleum for disposable products. It will reduce the volume of micro-pellets of plastic that are showing up on land, sea and air, and in animals and humans. It will signal to oil and gas producers that they can move on to cleaner energy because there will be less demand for petroleum products. It will reduce the amount of chemicals from plastic manufacturing, arriving in our air and water.
- Sign up your church to take at least 10 concrete steps to stop using single-use plastic for your meals and activities.
- List them in the form below and submit them by Dec. 15 to Marian at uccrev77@gmail.com
FOUR CHURCHES THAT SUBMIT THEIR FORMS WILL BE CHOSEN AT RANDOM TO RECEIVE A $50 PRIZE FROM THE EJ TEAM!
See the suggestions on the form below.
Yours for a livable world,
The Environmental Justice Team
Liz Brunton, Karl Jones, Barb Pence, Carol Swingle, Zack Jackson, Marian Shearer
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To join, and report, please email the following information to Marian:
uccrev77@gmail.com
Church Name
Church Address
Contact Person, person’s email and phone
Yes! We want to help preserve our environment and reduce harm!
Here are our Ten Actions for No-Plastics November and De-Plastic December:
1. to 10.
IDEAS FOR REDUCING SINGLE-USE PLASTICS AT CHURCH:
Use real silverware and coffee cups at coffee hour (you know your church kitchen still has them!) Volunteer for the washing-up team.
Use only paper straws.
Go back to glass communion cups, or change to intinction.
Buy coffee hour snacks in cardboard boxes or paper, not rigid plastic clamshells.
Encourage using cloth or mesh bags, or even paper, not plastic bags from stores, such as when you buy groceries for a church meal, or Sunday School supplies at dollar-type stores. (Do this at home too, of course!)
No more Styrofoam cups or take-out trays. Compostable items are available in restaurant stores. Foam items last forever in landfills.
Install a water cooler to refill reusable water bottles; discourage stocking the church with single water bottles.
Ditch plastic table covers you’ve been saving after a few uses and transition to cloth table covers. (Old bedsheets work well!)
Throw a kitchen shower for tablecloths and dish towels and cloth napkins.
Take turns taking them home to wash.
Be intentional about recycling office paper, bulletins, notices.
Investigate NexTrex or other companies which make composite benches from recycled plastic bags and wraps. Sponsor bag collections; partner with organizations that use your building; earn a bench for your garden.
Take an inventory of how your church supplies (toilet paper, bulbs, furnace filters, etc.) are packaged. Let suppliers know you do not want plastic wrappings.
If your township does not recycle, become a champion for changing that!
Many things that are marked with 5 or above are theoretically recyclable, but there are very few facilities in Pennsylvania that actually take them.
Think of something else and let us know!
Resources
The Climate Justice Working Group invites your church to consider making a change in your congregation to do something “green” to mitigate climate change. We hope this list will help you see possibilities.
- Our building committee will change to LED light bulbs.
- Our hospitality committee will cease using foam cups.
- Our pastor will preach on climate change on Earth Sunday (or another date.)
- Our book group will read Climate Church, Climate World by UCC minister Jim Antal, Cathedral on Fire!: A Church Handbook for the Climate Crisis by Brooks Berndt, the UCC’s Minister for Environmental Justice, or another similar book.
- Our media team will look up Breath to the People: Sacred Air and Toxic Pollution, a new report just out from the UCC, and report on it as a mission moment.
- Our mission team will visit UCC.org/pollinator to consider the 10 things churches can do in this Kairos time.
- Our church will host a movie screening and discussion of a The Human Element or a similar film. (Click here for resources.)
- Our youth group will grow a pizza garden and hold a climate friendly pizza party (Click here for resources.)
- Our congregation will explore becoming a Creation Justice Church.
- Our congregation will plant trees at our church, around our homes, or have a tree planted for $1 in a National Park. Check out the For the Love of Trees Packet from the Pennsylvania Council of Churches.
- Our congregation will make a commitment to buy locally for meals (https://www.localharvest.org/organic-farms/)
- Our weekly email will include a link for members to sign up to receive The Pollinator, the UCC’s Environmental Justice newsletter. (https://www.ucc.org/pollinator_sign_up)
- Our fellowship team will host a meat-free potluck.
- Our justice committee will plan an event to educate our congregation on the environment.
- Our congregation will switch to washable plates, cups, utensils, and communion cups.
- Our building committee will have the boiler serviced.
- Our staff will download the Creation Justice Brochure and share it with the congregation.
- Our newsletter will include a description and link to listen to “Down the Wormhole” the podcast by Rev. Zack Jackson on science and religion.
- Our congregation will form a Green Team for our church.
- Our congregation will work to earn one of these designations:
- an ENERGYSTAR Congregation.
- a Creation Justice Church.
- a Cool Congregation.
- a Fairtrade Church.
- Our finance team will break up with our Mega-Bank (more info).
- Our consistory will complete a Green Church Inventory.
- Our church will install solar panels on the roof of the church.
- Our grounds committee will plant a garden and hold services in the garden as weather permits. (Example)
Another resource:
The Environmental Action Team at Tabernacle United Church in Philadelphia has put together a Sacred Earth Handbook, covering personal ways to deal with household products, plastics, paper, electricity and lighting, water, food, and more. There are simple actions to put in practice immediately, more moderate actions requiring a moderate commitment or a modest purchase, and some big-ticket commitments to make toward securing a sustainable future for the earth. To view the Handbook or download it, go to Tabernacle United Church’s website at <www.tabunited.org>. Click on “resources” and a link to the Handbook will pop up immediately.
