Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, 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.” – Genesis 1:26
Long before Plato wrote about deforestation and erosion during the ancient Greek in 4th BC, or when George Perkins Marsh warned the world with the ecological consequences of poor environment stewardship, or even when Rachel Carson wrote Silent Spring (1962) that helped in launching environment movement, God was the first to make us aware that we should be a good stewards to every creatures that He has entrusted to us. “Over all the earth and over all the creatures” includes our environment.
Being a good steward to our family, or to the animals and endangered species around us, is not enough to make us the good steward that God wants us to be. He wants us also to be a good steward in how we preserve and protect our environment. Garbage disposal is one of the many ways where we can help preserve and nurture our mother earth.
Garbage disposal has been an age-old problem for society. During the pre-historic time, people disposed their waste like bones, tools and clothes in wastes heaps call middens. Ancient civilations usually recycled materials from dominated cities and pillaged buildings. Problems concerning to solid waste disposal have increased as the cities grew larger and the human population increased in number. Landfill is limited and as prosperity increases, the amount of waste also increases (Davis et. al, 2009).
Four pounds or 1.8 kilograms of garbage per day doesn’t sound like much, but when it is multiplied to the total population of the United States of America it will reach up to 880,000,000 pounds or 400,000,000 kilograms of garbage per day, a massive amount of garbage isn’t it (Morgan et. al, 2004). That figure is for USA alone, how much more if we include the everyday waste disposal of all the countries here on earth.
Last September 26, 2009, tropical storm Ondoy wreaked havoc in Metro Manila and nearby provinces. Ondoy brought a month-worth of rainfall in the Metro in just 9-hours. Many Filipinos lost their houses, especially those who lived in shanties along rivers, and many lost their loved ones. Over 300 people died, and almost 340,000 people were affected by the typhoon (MB & GMAnews). A big part of this disaster was caused by garbage. If we could have disposed our wastes properly, the damage could also have been less. I hope we learned from our mistakes.
As a good steward of God’s creatures, do we play the role that our God has entrusted us to? Do we keep small things such as candy wrapper or a chip wrapper when we don’t find a trashcan, or we remain apathetic when we see these things on a street or even in a public vehicle? Do we throw our household wastes on the right place? Do we recycle things that can still be used?
Our nature is beautiful and we are stewards of God’s creation. Being the most intelligent among all creatures, we could either destroy these creations or sustain them. All we need to do is to obey what God told us to do, “rule over all the earth and over all the creatures.” We must rule over them in a positive way, without manipulating them for our own advantages. We must use our natural resources wisely, so that future generations will still be able to benefit from it.
“If you follow my decrees and are careful to obey my commands, I will send you rain in its season and the ground will yield its crops and the trees of the field their fruit… and I will grant peace in the land.” – Leviticus 26: 3-4, 6
Sources:
Davis, M., Masten, S. (2009). Principles of environmental engineering and science.
Boston: McGraw-Hill Higher Education.
Morgan, S., Vesilind, P. (2004). Introduction to environmental engineering.
Australia: Thomson/Brooks/Cole.
http://www-history.mcs.st-and.ac.uk/PictDisplay/Plato.html
http://dennisvillegas.blogspot.com/2009/09/wrath-of-typhoon-ondoy.html
http://www.mb.com.ph/node/222586/ondoy-death-toll-pa
http://www.gmanews.tv/story/173284/over-100-killed-and-almost-340000-affected-by-ondoy
Passion 