Omnia in Christo
Taken from the college’s motto “Instaurare Omnia in Christo,” this section features an essay or excerpt from a recent paper or talk by one of Christendom’s distinguished faculty.
B ene fiting S o ci et y Here a n d Abro a d BY DR. CYNTHIA M. NOLAN
On July 18, 2017, China gave Recycling is expensive to process, and many notice to the World Trade Organization that it would no longer import foreign recyclable garbage. The ban went into effect at the end of 2017, and by 2019, many nations that depended on China to take away their recyclable trash hadn’t solved their garbage problems. The result is a stockpile of household plastic and paper recyclables. Many cities in America do not know what to do with their recyclable trash. China imported foreign garbage from 1992 to 2018 in order to extract the raw materials it needed for rapid industrial growth. In 2016, China recycled half of the world’s waste plastic, paper, and metals. Rather than purchase virgin copper or lumber pulp, or create its own plastic or glass, China imported used products via recyclable trash from places like the United States, Canada, Japan, France, England, or Germany, to name a few. The recycling process employed thousands of people and saved Chinese industry millions of dollars. It also solved a problem for foreign countries: what to do with recyclables. The arrangement benefited the states that did not have the capacity to recycle their own garbage and encouraged the creation of new cities in China devoted solely to recycling. These cities were hazardous to the health of the citizens due to poor air quality, poor working conditions, and a rise in certain diseases among the local population. It also meant that China did not take care of its own garbage. In the summer of 2017, they decided to put a stop to the imports. The official announcement was part of an anti-pollution campaign in China through the World Trade Organization by a specific waste import restriction on unusable material that contaminates recyclables. China will only accept recyclables like scrap metal, plastic, glass, cardboard, and paper with an impurity level of 0.5%. That level of purity is not common in the United States or elsewhere. 36
Instaurare
affected, and my quality of life is unaffected people do not know the rules, so the effort by pollution or disease. to clean plastic (for example) goes to waste Based on a rational cost-benefit analysis, if there is one or two bottles that aren’t as any introduction to macroeconomics will clean are thrown in too. So, where does our tell you, it is not rational to make a decision recycling go if China does not take it, and that costs more than the benefit it provides. should we just stop altogether? Thus an individual decision in Warren County According to Pope Francis in Laudato Si, seems far removed from Pope Francis’s call the solution has to come from human beings. to stewardship. Moreover, without a specific He argues that we are capable of it. An way to measure costs (which Pope Francis individual’s lifestyle can acknowledge that doesn’t give us), there is no incentive to reconsumerism has a moral in addition to an eco- cycle waste or save water or reuse resources nomic component. We need to leave behind beyond the generalized ones that he gives our self-destruction to achieve sustainability. to love our neighbor. We will have to overcome individualism to How do you solve a global problem at truly care about the society around us. a local level? Pope Francis points to our reWhy? Every man is created in God’s image sponsibility to our fellow man. His categories and likeness. Every person has an immense of problems and solutions are not actually dignity that the Creator deeply loves. Any act related to results, but to the effort itself. of cruelty is contrary to our dignity. The Pope There is no alternative to recycling even if it argues that we can’t love our God if we dis- doesn’t immediately solve a problem halfway regard any part of His creation by constantly around the world from my home. consuming and destroying his world and his These efforts “benefit society, often unpeople. Maximization of profits, consumer beknown to us, for they call forth a goodness culture, and disregard for the health of the which, albeit unseen, inevitably tends to environment do not create a better quality spread. Furthermore, such actions can restore of life or a respect for human dignity. our sense of self-esteem; they can enable Pope Francis emphasizes a global us to live more fully and to feel that life on problem with a wide variety of descrip- earth is worthwhile.” (Francis, Laudato Si, tions, consequences, and complications. The 2015, para. 212). overall term that he uses—environmental By taking an individual approach to solvdegradation—covers a significant number ing world problems, we have a global effect. of factors and increased lifestyle problems, including housing, access to water, air pollu- The above is an excerpt from paper presented at tion, disease, and landfills over capacity. In the Society of Catholic Social Scientists Conference, our immediate area, the problems that Pope Franciscan University, October 2019. Francis identifies seem remote. There may be no immediate effects to my lack of recycling. The local Dr. Cynthia M. Nolan is an adjunct professor landfill in Front Royal, VA, is of international relations in the Political Science department at Christendom College. well managed, with years of Her undergraduate and graduate degrees continued availability. The came from American University. She also cost to waste management teaches online at American Military in Warren County is negligiUniversity. Dr. Nolan lives in Middletown, VA with her husband and five children. ble. My drinking water is not
