Every January for the last four years the Dominican Sisters of Springfield have made a fresh commitment to care for Earth. Not a New Year’s Resolution, exactly, but the plans do serve to refocus the sisters and their associates on the global Church’s commitment to care for Earth by making a path toward a healthier Earth and a healthier Earth community.
This year’s plan calls on the sisters and their associates to reduce single-use plastic waste and advocate for local, state, national, and global policies that reduce plastic pollution.
In 2015 when Pope Francis published Laudato Si’, On Care for Our Common Home, he recognized the need to respond to the challenge of climate change as integral to the needs of Earth and Earth’s inhabitants. “We have to realize that a true ecological approach always becomes a social approach,” he wrote. “it must integrate questions of justice in debates on the environment, so as to hear both the cry of the earth and the cry of the poor.” (LS49)
People who are impoverished contribute the least to climate change, while at the same time, they suffer most from the rest of the world’s overconsumption. Plastic pollution damages health, leads to flooding, creates huge mountains of waste in places where the poorest people live, and contributes to global warming. “It this way, our desire to combat plastic waste accomplishes our desire to respond to Pope Francis’ mandate to hear the cry of Earth and the cry of the poor,” said the sisters’ LSAP committee chair, Sister Sharon Zayac.
This year’s plan, in many ways a continuation of previous commitments, asks sisters and associates to learn about, advocate for, and practice plastic reduction strategies.
Learn
The congregation’s LSAP committee recommends these websites to learn about plastics-related issues:
https://www.beyondplastics.org/
https://ourworldindata.org/plastic-pollution
https://www.plasticpollutioncoalition.org/
https://www.unep.org/plastic-pollution—The UN’s environment program website.
https://www.greenpeace.org/usa/key-facts-on-plastic-and-climate/
https://sinia.minam.gob.pe/ —Peru’s environmental ministry department
Advocate
Sisters, associates, and others who want to be involved are invited to lend their voices to efforts to support of global and governmental initiatives to reduce plastic waste such as:
2023 Plastic Pellet Free Waters Act introduced in the Senate by Illinois Senator Dick Durbin and a companion bill in the House.
Break Free from Plastic Pollution Act of 2023 which is meant to prevent pollution from consumer packaging from entering into animal and human food chains and waterways.
IN 2020 UN Member States endorsed a resolution at the UN Environment Assembly to develop a legally binding agreement on plastic pollution by 2024.
Support legislation in their own states. In 2024 Illinois became the first state to pass legislation to reduce single-use plastics in hotels.
Practice
Sister and associates are encouraged to:
- reduce their consumption of clothing items that contain synthetic fibers made of plastic.
- bring mesh bags to hold produce at the store,
- use containers from home for restaurant leftovers,
- carry metal water bottles for travel,
- refuse to use any single-use plastic like bottles or spoons, forks, straws, and
- choose products packaged in cardboard, paper, glass or aluminum rather than plastic.
The challenge is daunting, the sisters know.
“Yes, this feels like a Sisyphean task,” said sister. “Turning down a plastic drinking straw, buying food in bulk, carrying your own containers from home for restaurant leftovers—are these not the tiniest drops in the ocean of plastic waste the world creates every day? Of course. But we have to start somewhere," she continued.
"If everyone would make choices like these whenever possible, together we could impact the market. When companies see their profit margin soar because they package in glass or paper rather than plastic, that means something," she said.
"I encourage everyone to make a personal commitment and stick with it. Even if it seems futile. Your choices do make a difference, even if you can’t just yet see how they do.”
The Dominican Sisters of Springfield are part of a worldwide Dominican family, and join their efforts to the efforts of the Order of Preachers worldwide. The International Dominican Commission for Justice and Peace has asked every Dominican congregation and province to commit to reducing plastic waste this year.
For more than 800 years, Dominicans have preached the Gospel in word and deed. The Springfield Dominicans were established in Jacksonville, Illinois, in 1873 and relocated to Springfield in 1893. Today, thousands of Dominican sisters, nuns, priests, brothers, associates, and laity minister in more than 100 countries around the world. To learn more about the Dominican Sisters of Springfield visit springfieldop.org.
Congratulations to the Sisters for accepting this challenge and for bringing our individual responsibilities to our attention. Your advocacy and example are appreciated . Thank you.
Thank you for sending us your ideas and encouragement on this important issue.
I think a doable thing for me is to sign up with one of the groups that you have
listed under LEARN and then promise myself to read and act on all that the the info they send me.