Plastics Info Part 1 - Help us spread the word about the plastic bottle disposal ban

Guest Blogger – Scott Mouw. This is just one letter of many that have been sent out from our office to various generators of plastic bottles. Feel free to pass it along to your church or place of worship.

“For many denominations, environmental stewardship is becoming an increasing concern. A common, everyday activity that helps people practice stewardship is recycling. Recovering and diverting recyclable materials from disposal returns valuable resources to the economy, protects habitats, reduces dependence on landfills, saves energy and creates jobs in North Carolina.

An upcoming development in North Carolina’s recycling laws provides an opportunity for denominations to reflect on their efforts to recycle and to take steps to help spread the benefits of this simple act. Effective on Oct. 1 of this year, plastic bottles are banned from disposal. This ban supplements an earlier prohibition on the disposal of aluminum cans in North Carolina.

Enforcement of these bans will take place at landfills and disposal facilities and will not be directly applied at points of generation, including places of worship. The objectives of the disposal bans are not to catch people violating the law, but instead to stimulate the development of recycling programs and to encourage recycling behavior.

We wanted to bring this issue to your attention so that you can help spread the word about the disposal bans to members of your denomination, not only to encourage them to recycle the banned materials at places of worship, but also to carry the behavior on to other aspects of life. Doing so will help achieve many of the environmental and economic development goals of our state and will represent a big step forward in the practice of environmental stewardship.

The state Division of Pollution Prevention and Environmental Assistance has posted some information regarding the disposal bans, with tips on how to start recycling efforts – please see: http://www.p2pays.org/BannedMaterials/PlasticBottles/. If you need additional information, please call DPPEA at (919) 715-6500. Thank you for your consideration.”