Vicar calls on churches to champion recycling

Responding to the current media attention on the environment, Reverend Jon Hale of All Saints' Church, Crawley Down, has drawn on his background in waste planning and set up a website identifying opportunities for the Church to promote sustainability in the community.

Rev Hale's “Stewards of the Earth's Resources” website identifies sections of the Bible which indicate Christians have a religious obligation to care for the environment. It points to Chapters 1 and 2 of Genesis as stating that “God expects us to care for the Creation that God has made”.

He is also set to visit other churches to find out what they are doing to cut down on their environmental impacts, and raise awareness of sustainability issues.

Speaking to letsrecycle.com Rev Hale explained: “The Church is in the heart of the community and can influence the way things are done by people in their homes and local businesses. There is a real potential for the local church to become a champion of sustainability.”

“The Church can work with the local authority to promote recycling, locate bring banks in church car parks and collect items such as textiles to benefit local charities or voluntary groups,” he added.

Rev Hale revealed that a number of churches already do participate in small scale community recycling, by getting involved in furniture reuse projects for homeless charities or hosting bins to collect used printer cartridges and mobile phones on church premises.

However, he also said there are still a number of churches not doing anything, and warned that a lot of work still needed to be done to get the waste message across and show worshippers how to recycle.

Rev Hale, who worked for Durham county council's planning department from 1979 to 1986, said he did not favour a hardline approach to engage with congregations. He said “The message needs to be communicated gently – for example, starting by recycling all the disposable cups we have in the church and buying proper cutlery and plates.”

The vicar said Christians had a responsibility to future generations, and suggested that the principle of sustainable development would therefore be “welcomed and embraced by Christians”.

“One of the main ways in which we can all be better Stewards of the Earth's Resources is by recycling more of our waste – or better still reducing the amount of waste we make, or re-using our waste,” he said.

Survey

Earlier this year, Rev Hale conducted an online survey to work out how many churches were recycling, with 20 churches responding to reveal that they were conducting some form of composting or recycling.

This autumn the vicar will be visiting a number of these churches, meeting with third sector waste organisations and using the information to fill the website with best practice examples from local churches.

He said: “With my contacts in local government and waste businesses from my past working as a graduated planner in waste and minerals I want to act as a bridge to stimulate sustainability.”