Protecting Our Planet: It’s Up to All of Us

Oct 1, 2021 | Sustainability, Minimalism and the Environment

Written by Ellen Frank Bayer

When your daughter comes home from a school trip and tells you to stop using single-use plastic water bottles, it gets your attention. When the sanitation people tell you after a big holiday that you are the garbage queen of the block, it is time to take notice. As a kosher consumer with a large family, it’s easy to think that we don’t have any other options – bottled water, paper plates and aluminum pans make Shabbat and holidays manageable. They are easier to use, quicker to clean up and there’s no arguing about the dishes. But is living this way really in alignment with Jewish values?

I first began to pay attention to this issue when my daughter was introduced to environmental awareness in fifth grade. The Brandeis School in Lawrence, New York, arranged for her class to spend a few days at the Isabella Freedman Center, with Teva. She came home from the trip with three beads around her neck. They stood for: 

  1. No more water bottles
  2. Recycle glass jars
  3. Reduce waste

This was back in 2009, before global warming was a thing and no one ever imagined a virus that would stop the world and close the airports. Today, we know so much more about caring for the earth, but we sometimes forget that it is a vital responsibility for all of us, especially as Jews. We’ve just celebrated Rosh Hashana, the Jewish New Year. This year, 5782, is a “shmita year” in Israel, a year when we celebrate the “sabbatical of the earth”, giving the land a chance to rest. But all of us learn from the Biblical commandment of Shmita that the responsibility to care for our planet is a communal one. As Rob Eshman wrote in The Los Angeles Times, “It isn’t up to each of us to save the land, shmita wasn’t an individual choice, it was a task mandated for the entire society.”

Many of us acknowledge this responsibility but don’t realize just how urgent the situation is. The facts are alarming. According to the Environmental Protection Agency, last year in the US we created 140,000 tons of waste for our landfills, of which paper was 42 million tons. In 2018, we created 150,000 tons of waste for landfills, of which food was 35 million tons and paper was 17 million tons. We are creating a national emergency, which is spreading across the globe.  

The time for change is now. According to the 2021 United Nations Climate Report, the earth is in a crisis. Our actions make a difference. Conservation, composting and reducing waste

are three ways to save our planet. But it starts with education, both at school and at home.

The Teva program is a great example of a successful program which is teaching our children to love and nurture our planet. Hazon.org is the organization behind the Teva Program. Hazon originally ran out of The Isabella Freedman Jewish Retreat Center and now has merged with The Pearlstone Center, in Maryland. Both of these places incorporate a love for the land and teach Jewish farming, sustainability and environmental education through experiential hands-on learning. Donna Weiss, a teacher at The Brandeis School, has chaperoned her students for over a decade to The Isabella Freedman Center for the Teva retreat. “The experience is life-changing,” according to Ms. Weiss. Students leave with an awareness of the oneness of the world.   

The students enter the retreat and have to give up their electronic devices. For four days, these preteens are surrounded and involved with loving the earth and appreciating all of its wonders. They learn how to investigate the underworld of a log, how to make lip balm from natural herbs, create goat cheese with milk from the goats on the campus, and how to repurpose tin cans and glass bottles to create kiddush cups and challah knives.

In the world of today, where we see the havoc caused by global warming and deforestation, it is so vital to teach our next generation to value and appreciate the natural resources of our planet.

The Teva Center brings it all home.  

Shamu Sadeh, the Education Director at Hazon and former director of Teva, shared with me how his father tore up his front yard to plant a garden and took him on weekly “trash walks” to find objects which they could repurpose and reuse. His career in environmental education began at home. You too, can make changes. Here are a few simple tips to start reducing waste and composting at home:

 

1. Reuse and repurpose vegetable peels, rinds, and even onion skins. Vegetable peels make great stock. You can also stop peeling potatoes and carrots, just wash carefully and cook with the skins. The potato skin is high in fiber and potassium.

2.  Aquafaba: This is the water from a can of chickpeas. It is a great substitute for eggs and can be whipped up and used in cakes, meringues and other recipes calling for egg whites.

3. Repurpose instead of throwing out: water bottles can be made into bird feeders, pen holders, flowers, planters and bubble wands. For some creative ideas, just look at some of the YouTube videos for repurposed water bottles. One cute video is 38 Creative Ideas With Plastic Bottles.

4. Start a compost bin; if you live in an apartment you can have an indoor worm bin. Worms require minimum care and will take care of watermelon rinds and apple cores.

Use “red wiggler” worms for the compost. You can find these worms for sale by googling “red wigglers.” There are many different places where you can order worms. You can find directions for creating a worm bin on the Cornell University composting in schools project. Read Six Easy Steps to Setting Up a Worm Bin. 

It’s easy to create a compost pile outdoors in an old plastic bin. Drill some holes on the sides of the bin so air can get in. Each time you add food waste, include old newspapers and some dead leaves or twigs. Alternate with old newspapers and leaves. Keep the pile moist and turn it every time you add food scraps. Use the compost on your plants.

5. Read books to your family about the environment. Two books highly recommended are There’s An Owl in the Shower by Jean Craighead George and All That Trash: The Story of the 1987 Garbage Barge and Our Problem with Stuff. by Meghan McCarthy.

You too, can make changes. Here are a few simple tips to start reducing waste and composting at home

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