A banner hangs outside the Church of God within the village of El Rincón, Honduras, that claims, “Let’s be a part of the answer, not the pollution.”
It’s a message pastor Wilfredo Vásquez posted after witnessing the harmful effects of plastics in his community.
“More and more, I understand that if we would like to see changes in any area of society, we as children of God must take the initiative for those changes, since the church is the hope of the world,” he told CT.
Vásquez, who shepherds the Wesleyan-Arminian congregation within the Central American town of about 4,000 people, has began taking steps to assist his community and hopes world leaders will do the identical by establishing a world treaty on plastic.
From April 23 to 29, delegates from all over the world met in Ottawa for the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee on Plastic Pollution (INC-4). It’s the fourth stage in a five-stage process working toward an agreement that has the potential to alter how plastic is handled globally.
If passed, experts consider it could have the same impact on plastic usage as the Montreal Protocol of 1987 had on chemicals equivalent to freon.
While the ultimate stage of the method isn’t until November in South Korea, after probably the most recent round of discussions in Canada, delegates from greater than 150 countries agreed to start intercessional work. Right away, delegates will start meeting to develop ways to discover plastic products and chemicals of concern.
In El Rincón, 3,600 miles away from the most recent round of discussions, Vásquez is praying for the treaty’s passage.
Vásquez knows exactly what’s at stake and what a difference even small changes could make, because he’s experienced it firsthand in his village. Speaking to CT through a translator, Vásquez shared about how until recently, there was no proper recycling or waste collection in his community.
“What people do with solid waste is either they throw it, they bury it, or they burn it,” he said.
The negative impacts could possibly be seen throughout. Trash littered playgrounds and sports fields. Smoke from trash fires polluted the air and caused respiratory problems for many individuals, including Vásquez’s mother-in-law.
“They close the doors and the windows and keep these people isolated,” Vásquez said. “They can’t exit due to smoke.”
Compelled by love of neighbor and the biblical command to look after creation, Vásquez decided to do something to alter what he saw.
He began encouraging church members and other people locally to stop burning trash. Then the church organized community cleanups and encouraged members to make use of reusable cups and utensils as a substitute of single-use plastics.
Alongside Tearfund, a Christian charity that partners with churches in greater than 50 of the world’s poorest countries, the pastor talked with community leaders and the local government in regards to the need for waste collection.
The community now has a weekly garbage pickup. In addition, youth from Vásquez’s church collect and recycle plastic, while other recyclable waste is collected at sorting points established across the community.
As a results of these changes, the village is cleaner, and people with respiratory conditions can breathe easier.
Miriam Moreno, Tearfund’s environmental and economic sustainability manager for Latin America and the Caribbean, has worked with Vásquez to assist make the changes in his community. One thing Tearfund did was fund containers for sorting waste.
“It’s very inspiring to have leaders like him to give you the chance to share his experience and what he’s done,” she said.
Like Vásquez, Moreno says it’s her faith which motivates her to do that work.
“I feel it’s my responsibility as a Christian, and I feel very inspired to mobilize others and to get to know what others are doing,” she said.
She and Vásquez hope to encourage similar changes in other parts of Central America.
“While the waste collection and bins being installed in El Rincón will make a giant difference to this community, there are tons of of hundreds more communities like this,” she said.
She believes addressing plastic pollution through a world treaty shall be a key step toward helping impoverished countries.
“Everyone has heard the issues of plastic waste and pollution,” she said. “Everyone has a technical knowledge. But something that has been missing is that connection to make people aware of our responsibility as Christians to maintain creation.”
One of the people representing Tearfund at INC-4 is Rich Gower, a senior economist for the nonprofit. As a company that works in greater than 50 of the world’s poorest countries, he said, they’ve seen firsthand how plastic disproportionately impacts those living in poverty.
He said an estimated 2 billion people worldwide haven’t any protected approach to get rid of garbage. Like El Rincón, these places have few other options but to burn or dump their plastic and other waste on street corners and in open dumps.
“The results are wide-ranging and intensely harmful—causing toxic fumes; flooding; increasing the danger of cancer and other serious diseases like heart disease, respiratory infection, and other health conditions; and in addition creating climate emissions,” Gower said.
A Tearfund research paper, “No Time to Waste,” found that this leads to the deaths of as much as 1 million people every year.
Tearfund’s team on the UN talks is looking on governments to push for a treaty that fully addresses the impacts of waste on people living in poverty by ensuring 4 things are mandatory in the ultimate agreement:
- Reduction: legally binding targets to scale back plastic production and scale up reuse solutions
- Recycling: universal access to waste collection and recycling
- Respect: support for waste pickers, including a just transition
- Response: mechanisms to make sure businesses and governments take motion
Gower believes Christians have a crucial role to play in the method.
“Christians from all over the world have joined together in Tearfund’s Rubbish campaign because we consider that all and sundry created by God should give you the chance to live a full life free from rubbish,” he said. “The growing waste crisis is having a huge effect on the lives of individuals living in poverty and can also be harming God’s beautiful creation.”
The fifth session of the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee on Plastic Pollution shall be held November 25 through December 1. If an agreement is reached, the plastic treaty could go into effect in 2025.
