Plastic Bottles Flowing

Plastic bottles epitomise our race in general and our Western culture in particular. Although a clever invention, they are often wasteful use of our God-given resources. Their initial production requires 24,000,000 litres of oil per annum. Every minute of every hour, we buy a million of them around the world and 80% of them are not recycled, going instead to landfill or swimming out to sea. Although most are made from polyethylene terephthalate which is highly recyclable, our rates are dismal. Up to 13 million tonnes of plastic leaks into the oceans annually, to be ingested by sea birds and fish. By 2050 it is estimated that the ocean will contain more plastic by weight than fish, according to the Guardian newspaper. 

Behold, the decadence and selfishness of industrialised humanity. We extract, use, dispose and discard, all the while damaging our leased heritage and Adam’s patrimony. The natural world over which we are viceroys suffers under our greedy and selfish rule. There’s little wonder than the King is planning to return, taking back the reins of government from our lazy and unprofitable hands.

Highlighting our self-centred profligacy, Barnoldswick’s Rainhall Centre collected a quantity of unrecycled bottles and transformed them into containers for lobelia, which then hung down its walls in gorgeous fashion.

Is it too little for you to have eaten up the good pasture, that you must tread down with your feet the residue of your pasture—and to have drunk of the clear waters, that you must foul the residue with your feet? And as for My flock, they eat what you have trampled with your feet, and they drink what you have fouled with your feet.

Ezekiel 34:18-19