Is a strictly archaic lifestyle feasible today? Today in the world, there is much more knowledge available. I call this, “the knowledge of good and evil”. With technology and the knowledge behind it, there have been good effects, and bad effects. There are both good and evil. However, humans being humans, the evil far outweighs the good.
The mortality rate has much decreased. People can live longer, healthier, and fuller lives. However, people also have the technology to kill one another, to kill the unloved of society (wrongfully-called treated as hindrances to progress), to kill unborn children, and to kill themselves through the modern lifestyle (stress, processed foods, over-medication, harmful chemical byproducts).
Yes, long ago people ate from the land. They ate “organic” food. They ate from the labor of their own hands. They didn’t die from living in an unreal and unnatural office environment, eating unnatural food, breathing unnatural air. However people knew less about sanitation, hygiene, bacteria. Certain practices, had they been known hundreds of years ago, would have saved many lives.
Flushing toilets have replaced the smelly, unhygienic outhouses. However, outhouses (hole-over-the-ground) toilets do not waste gallons of water. They contribute nutrients back to the environment.
Running, filtered water is a real advantage. Cars, too, have their good (we save time, travel more efficiently and quickly) and well as the bad (they pollute the environment).
So I ask myself, living today, do I really want to go back in time a hundred years? Well, the advantages of the wiser, more environmentally friendly lifestyle can be had today, together with the useful knowledge that science has contributed. However, it is just simply too troublesome for most people.
I detest packaging labels. It is a waste of good plastic. I believe plastic can be good, if only people would use it wisely and responsibly. I believe cars are very good things when used with care. I believe electricity and running water is a real necessity. As long I go out of my way to conserve and learn survival measures in case of their absence, I think it’s absolutely fine to use electricity.
The problem is that living responsibly, spending wisely, conserving, and being frugal is a pretty troublesome task. It means I can’t buy a tv dinner, throw away the packaging, eat some of it, and throw (75% of what I paid for, which is troublesome for me to use) away (plastic wrap, cardboard box, paper plate, etc).
Probably most of what consumers purchase today is discarded. When you buy two chicken drumsticks, you would have it in a plastic bag, on a Styrofoam plate, wrapped in cling wrap, and in another plastic bag for good measure (a hygienic practice). You would probably throw away most of the drumsticks you paid for (bones) and possibly not even bother to eat the drumsticks clean. What a waste of good resources and material, all for convenience.
Yes, of course hygiene is necessary. Plastic gloves are necessary to preserve hygiene. Yet, probably most of the plastic we use is not merely for hygiene but for convenience. Convenience comes at a cost. I’m not saying we should go to drastic measures. I just realized how much waste passes through the household each day and find it shockingly wasteful and irresponsible. So how I deal with living in a modern world, yet sticking to the fundamental, Biblical principles of sowing and reaping (laziness reaps nothing, responsibility and diligence reaps abundantly).
Here are several concepts I have developed to reduce (perhaps even totally eliminate) the impact I have on the environment. I do not worship the environment, and even though I know that God is about to make a new earth, I think we should develop responsibility and diligence now, because I seriously doubt God is going to let us use chemicals, toxins, pesticides, plastic, pollutant gases etc. for our convenience in haOlam Haba (The age to come). In the perfect *sigh* world, there will be no more safety issues.
There will be no more worry about food. They will be no more complaining about the imperfect government (the government will be more perfect than the people). There will be no more drought and famine (If we obey the King). The Kingdom of Heaven is a perfect kingdom. Of course, the perfect kingdom has to have perfect citizens. Whatever I do now, I want to be sowing into the Kingdom. Therefore, I repent now so that I may eternally rejoice. I suffer now that I may eternally glory. I work now, enter into eternal rest later. I stop building earthly treasures, and start storing my treasure where it really counts.
Anyway, the world as it is today is a world of sin. We, citizens of the heavenly kingdom, ought to live a life that is set apart. Set apart basically means intrinsically different, not because God’s standards are purposely opposite to us to make our life difficult, it is because all of society and the world is in blatant and unrepentant rebellion against God.
If I don’t speak like society, why should I eat like society. If I belong to a different King and a different Kingdom, I would behave and act so much differently. I also will be a good steward now, so that when haAdon Olam (Master of the Universe) returns, He can entrust me with more. If I am not responsible now, I never will be.
Okay, here are some suggestions and ideas. More will be added later on.
1) 1) Ribbons, plain plastic boxes, nice wrapping paper, plain cardboard boxes, etc. These are the prettiest and nicest things to recycle. Keep them sorted out nicely and use them for gifts. Most people keep these.
2) Ziplock bags, ugly (covered with labels and marketing stuff) cardboard boxes, plastic cellophane wraps (whatever you call those plastic things with a sticky can-open-and-close packing like what stationary, combs, hair clips, etc come from), cardboard toilet rolls (more on that later!) cans, glass bottles, tins, etc. can either
a. Be used again easily
b. Collected and used as craft material (great fun! Don’t bother buying craft materials, you already probably have them in your house)
c. Or sent to the recycling center
3) 2) Dispose toxic waste things (like old batteries, computer screens etc.) rightly. Find out from your local municipal/Information Technology Center how to dispose of them
4) 3) Cloth can be reused! Old T-shirts can be made into yarn
5) 4) Reuse old plastic bags
6) 5) Organic waste material – after totally optimizing your organic materials, they can be
a. Used in the garden as fertilizer (compost)
b. Made into enzyme house cleaners
c. Incinerayed, ashes and heat can be used. (Some local municipals have waste incinerators. In Malaysia, it is becoming more common for organic waste to be incinerated by the local waste collection service.)
d. Anything but being thrown into garbage landfills J
The Cycle of Demotion
1) The highest level of use for a product is for body and food (a plastic bread bag, a meat tray, plates)
2) The second level of use is for the home (craft, cleaning, etc – any activity that does not result in you physically consuming the product)
3) Next comes use In the garden.
4) Finally, disposal in a recycling center.
Example 1: A plastic water container/bottle can be used for many years. When the plastic wears out, becomes old, and the bottle is unhygienic to use, you can now use it to store household items, do craft with (store glitter, glue, paints, etc) and they you can use it in the garden (store fertilizer, water plants,) and finally send it to the recycling center.
Example 2: An old plate you have been using for dining is now a little. You can use it to feed your cat/dog/pet. You can use it for art and craft (use it to smear glue, make an old lamp). You can use it in your garden. You can save all your broken ceramic and tiles to make a pretty mosaic.
Example 3: You buy a pastry and save the aluminum tray and wash it. While it still looks good, you can use it for baking. Later on, you can use it as an oil lamp or to hold a candle. You can use it to fill water for painting. You can then use it to grow seedlings in your garden. If you have made it into a cute craft, you may never have to throw it away J
Stewardship must be practiced in three stratas:
1) 1) Corporations (Business Owner)
2) 2) Consumer Individual. As in individual, you must take responsibility and make significant, inconvenient, difficult, lifestyle changes. It is really a choice. If you are not responsible for your waste, who will be? Increase the optimization and efficiency of what you use. Be a responsible consumer. (This is my main emphasis) We must not be afraid to inconvenience ourselves rather than close our eyes, naively ignore the problem, and have it explode in our face later on.
3) 3) Waste Disposal Service. Municipal Garbage Collection Services (like Alam Flora) are really beginning to dispose of waste and encourage recycling.
