Recycle Your Paper & St. Luke’s Benefits!

   In recent months, our parish office has begun recycling all paper products. Why? It is a great practice of stewardship of God’s creation. Churches do create a lot of paper waste, what with service leaflets, meeting agendas, and so on. It only makes sense for us to recycle our paper.

   In the U.S. paper products comprise the largest component of municipal solid waste, making up 31-38 percent of the composition of landfills. Paper accounts for over 40 percent of the trash people throw away each year and takes up the most room in landfills. In 2005 recyclers recovered 51.5 percent of the paper consumed in the U.S. This means that today, we recover over 51 million tons of paper and paper products for recycling annually. Over 73 percent of all old newspapers in the United States are recovered and recycled. But percentages aren’t at all that high in the city of Jackson. 

   Waste Management, the collection contractor for the City of Jackson, no longer recycles municipal waste. However, we do have a paper recycling center right down the street from St. Luke’s. Southeast Recycled Fiber, L.L.C., at 532 Mobile St. accepts all grades of paper, including magazines, newspapers, magazines, junkmail, cardboard, paper grocery bags, or any other paper products. Just load up your car with your paper products and drive onto Southeast’s scales. Then the paper is unloaded and they re-weigh your car. It’s just that easy.

   Southeast Recycled Fibers is open from 7:30 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. Monday through Friday. To get there, just drive south on Royal St., turn left on Monroe, and keep driving straight until you drive up on Southeast’s scale. (See the map below.) Tell the attendant at the window you want your paper to go on St. Luke’s account, and St. Luke’s will receive compensation for the paper collected.  Together, we can make an impact on the amount of trash going to our landfill, be better stewards of God’s creation, and raise funds for our church too!