By Wendy Stasolla

A Green Table is a show and tell from the Earth Ministry about various things you can do to be kind to our Earth. Since we are unable to impress you with an in-person exhibit, I’ll try to do so in writing.

Although we earth ministers are huge proponents of recycling, the goal of this virtual green table is to highlight an even better practice of managing the tons of containers that hold our necessities and that is… TO NOT RECYCLE…by not bringing home single-use containers in the first place! This is now possible through an innovative service called Loop.

Loop is a forward-thinking program that enables you to buy an assortment of products from brands you trust in REUSABLE containers that you send back when empty to be refilled and used over and over again!

On our virtual Green Table we have a large canvas tote with compartments that contain tin canisters of beans, rice, pasta, dishwasher pods, the best gummy bears ever, cookies, nuts, and much more. There are artfully decorated tins with pumps or sprayers for shampoo, conditioner, soap, and cleaning solutions. And even a few pretty tins of Haagen Daz ice-cream and delicious frozen sweet potato burgers that are kept frozen with reusable cold packs.

The totes are delivered by UPS on their regular routes and go back to Loop the same way. You simply schedule a pickup and leave it outside your door. In this way, I personally have replaced many, many, many of the containers that would normally end up in my recycle bin and you can too!

Loop was started by Terracycle, an innovative company that is headquartered in Trenton. UUCWC’s own Michael Waas took a group of us on a magical tour of the facility this past February. For more information go to Loopstore.com and then START LOOPING!

Of course, please continue to recycle as well. You can refer to this article in the Earth Ministry archive if you have any questions on what, where, and how to recycle in our area.