The Atlantic-Midwest Province are one of twenty-three congregations of Catholic sisters of LCWR Region 8 who will observe Catholic Sisters Week, March 8-14, with a challenge: do not consume beverages from single-use plastic bottles.
According to National Geographic, 18 billion pounds of plastic waste flow into the oceans every year, nearly half the plastic ever made has been manufactured since 2020, and at the same time, less than one fifth of all plastic is recycled globally. The impact of plastic in the ocean and in the waste stream is devastating for all life. Its manufacture contributes annual greenhouse gas emissions equivalent to 57 average size coal-fired power plants.
The production of polluting waste is only one part of the story. The life cycle of single-use plastic bottles—from the point of manufacture to what they are filled with and how they are disposed of—demonstrates the concerns Catholic sisters have for three Gospel-based challenges facing the world: racism, migration, and climate change.
To draw attention to these interlinked global challenges, Catholic sisters serving in Illinois are inviting the public to refuse to use any single-use plastic drink bottles during March 8-14.
