Recycle – Reduce – Reuse

About a year ago every time I went to pray I felt uneasy, like something was missing. I think I knew what it was but I ignored it thinking, “Is this really from God?” But after few weeks I decided that’s it: I was going to do something about it! The problem was that I didn’t take very good of the environment, and that bothered me a lot. Mind you, I never throw garbage in public places; since my childhood my mom had taught me to carry my garbage with me until I come across a garbage bin or even take it all the way home. I always turn off the lights and electronics when I don’t need them. But I felt that there is much more to do.

So I bought one of those recycle bins from Wal-Mart and I’ve been recycling my papers and soft drinks cans ever since. But there is more we can do, for example, even though at times in Canada it seems to be cheaper and more convenience to just buy a new printer full of ink rather than buy new ink cartridges for the old printer, I always keep in mind that printers are not recycled and that they are not degradable. They just end up in the garbage landfills…pretty much forever.

Recycle - Reduce - Reuse by Fadi

And when I have to get rid of electronics I usually open them and take from their insides what I like such as gears, buttons, light bulbs, wires, and so on. This reduces the harmful materials that will end up in the soil and damage the environment. Electronics such as monitors, or computers, I usually pass them down to a family member or a friend who may need them; this way, it will take undegradable materials more time before they reach the landfills.

Growing in the 90’s in Iraq, while Iraq was under economical sanctions taught me a lot about how to appreciate basic things, how to maintain them and be content with what I have, and how to reuse things. Many times while I wait at the bus stop I see unfinished drinks or half eaten sandwiches lying on the side walk, and remember Iraq in the 80’s. A family then used to cook as if they were three families, and if the food did not finish they just threw it in the garbage. Then the 90’s came and people learned what it is like to be a family of three members but have food for only one person.

This behavior is displayed in Canada too. I see people who actually never ever turn off their TVs! and when they go to sleep they simply mute the volume! Some people don’t turn off the lights after they leave the room, and then they leave the house for hours with the lights still on! I had a friend in high school who told me that he never turned off his computer, even when he was in school! This attitude of ‘easy come easy go’ is so prevalent; sadly not only with material possessions but sometimes even with relationships and people God has put in our lives.

This big windmill that generates electricity reminded of the topic about saving the environment if not for us, at least for our kids and their kids. If not for them, then at least to please God, because He has entrusted us with working the earth–not destroying the earth–and made us masters over all other creatures. As God’s children we should be first in doing so.

Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them. And God blessed them. And God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue (take care of, guard, watch over) it and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.”  Genesis 1:26-28 ESV

PS: after I started recycling papers and soft drinks cans that uneasiness in my prayers went away.