Depression: a stage in keeping a Lenten discipline

Whales with guts full of plastic.

Recycling piling up in warehouses or being burned because nobody overseas wants to buy it our rubbish.

And plastic is everywhere.

(Teen Vogue does a great article on the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. It's not what you think.)

In the whole of Lent thus far, I have had two days only of not using some kind of single-use plastic.

Time and time again, I find myself using something with plastic in it. From cans to dental floss to menstrual products to the inside of a cap on a glass bottle.

It’s freaking everywhere.

9% of recyclable plastic ends up in recycling bins and of that 9% less and less is being actively recycled. It’s being burned, or stored in a warehouse or buried in landfill or dumped in oceans and this stuff lasts for over 500 years, breaking down into micro plastic that ends up in the food we eat.

The problem seems insurmountable and that no matter what I do, there will always be plastic. 

And I’m talking single use plastic not the reusable plastic which also have a limited “in the house” lifespan before they find their way into the recycling bin (where they may or may not be recycled, see above).

That’s a whole other ball of yarn, along with disposable paper products, which at least break down but take up a lot of resources (and cut down precious trees that create air for us to breathe).

At least I am doing something but it seems like a fight that cannot be won.

As a stage of getting through a Lenten discipline, this is particularly a dark place to be in.

God is even here because even in this darkest moment, I feel the tug of hope, that what I am doing is making a difference.

One more stage to go!