Bro. Steve O'Neil, SM, Liaison for Marianist Brothers and Parishes and MFEP coordinating team member, sends us this update from the Marianist Community in Ireland.
Bro. Gerry McAuley handles our community vegetable project. At this time, we have potatoes, lettuce, parsley, and lots of herbs growing. Gerry will shortly be planting onions and garlic to overwinter. The potatoes will be for Thanksgiving and Christmas.
The large box in the background is for the additional compost, which Gerry will make from seaweed gathered from our nearby seashore and leaves, which blow right up our driveway from the street. He digs some into the beds as he plants.
Around the corner are several large containers collection rainwater from our roof, giving us water in the dry times - which actually do exist in Ireland.
In the far corner behind the shed is our other compost project. Clean kitchen peelings and garden trimmings, join with more leaves in bins with red worms to make the compost we use on the flower beds.
We don't fertilize our grass, nor do we use weed killer. In mowing, Bro. Jim avoids patches of wildflowers while they are blooming. A lot of these are bee-friendly.
The rest of our recycling is connected to the system here in Ireland. This includes:
All glass containers are separated by color at recycling places.
Plastic bottles and aluminum cans, which have a deposit fee on them and are redeemed at supermarkets.
A bin for organic waste, including all cooked food, garden waste, and kitchen scraps. Collected biweekly.
A bin for other paper and plastic, which is sorted commercially - collected biweekly
All electrical goods in the EU have a recycling fee built into the cost. If a large appliance is delivered, they can take away the old one.
In addition, our “recycle” centers take all appliances and electrical goods large and small.
They also take batteries, Styrofoam, heavy cardboard, used cooking oil, aerosols, lightbulbs, paint, motor oil, out-of-date pharmaceuticals, used clothing, and more.
We do all of the above. We still manage to generate a fair amount of general trash, which is separate and collected weekly. We pay a general fee for bin collection and then a charge for each lift and its weight. The weight charge varies on the type of bin, with the general waste costing the most. We only put out bins when they are full.
Ireland has good public transit, so we use it when possible. All of our community members are now entitled to free travel by bus and rail throughout the country.
We encourage recycling at school as well, but that is a separate project which is managed from there.
There are other bits to our environmental projects, but that gives you some idea. We are not perfect, but we do a lot.
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