Stewardship

My husband and I recently spent two years living in Pennsylvania while attending Philadelphia Biblical University. While there, I was astonished about how little people cared about recycling, littering, and other environmental issues. Every road and highway was covered in litter, our school didn't even have a system for recycling the gobs of paper they went through, residential homes did not have recycle bins provided for them by the city like we do here in Olympia, and our apartment complex only offered recycling for plastic and glass but no cardboard or paper. It struck me as quite ironic that those in the Northeast would be so indifferent about environmental issues when they have hardly any trees, tons of people and plenty of pollution, whereas here in the NW people go overboard with extreme environmentalism when we have trees galore, wilderness everywhere and considerably less pollution.

While I do not consider myself an "environmentalist," I do greatly appreciate this beautiful earth God has created for us and think that we should do what we can to preserve it and take care of it. Genesis 1:26 says, "Then God said, 'Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.'" We are stewards of God's creation and we have the responsibility to care for it the best that we can.

I especially like it when I can do things that save money (after all, I am cheap!) and help the environment at the same time. For instance, one of the main reasons we started recycling all our cardboard and such when we first got married is so that we could cut down on our garbage and have the smaller garbage can which was less expensive! Now I like to look for things that help the environment even if they don't save me money...but, of course, not very often if they cost more (remember, I am cheap! =). The other day I was reading through the mailer sent out by the Thurston County Water and Waste Management. There were a few things that I thought were neat ideas that I want share with you all:

• Save those packing peanuts. "According to Backyard Living magazine (April/May 2007), placing Styrofoam packaging peanuts in the bottom of flower pots improves drainage and makes the pots lighter and more portable."


• Reduce junk mail. "To reduce the number of pre-screened credit and insurance offers you receive in the mail, visit http://www.optoutprescreen.com/ or call 1-888-567-8688. This is a free service to consumer offered by the major credit bureaus."


• Make some money for your unused electronics. "Costco offers an easy way for members to trade in iPods, digital cameras and other electronic gadgets for cash. Use the Web-based calculator to determine the value of your product, send in the item (with free shipping), and once the item is received you'll be sent a Costco gift card for the trade-in value. Go to http://www.costco.com/ and type 'trade in' in the search field."


• Cut down on shopping bag waste and save a little money. Bring your own canvas or cloth tote to the grocery store. Many stores offer small discounts for each reusable bag. (I haven't done this yet, but why not? I know some stores offer as much as 50 cents off the order!)


• Free Computer Recycle! (For my readers that live in the Olympia area) "1-800-GOT-JUNK, with support from MIC Total Recycle, will collect computers and computer-related components free of charge in celebration of International Earth Day. The event will be held Saturday, April 19 from noon to 3 p.m. at Westfield Capital Mall (by the former Mervyn's store)." I'm really excited about this one, because we have lots of old computer parts that can be expensive to take to the dump (i.e. especially monitors) so they've been sitting around in our garage for years.

What things do you do to be a good steward of the earth God has given us to care for?