I am writing to encourage an expanded religious sensitivity concerning our waste—how much garbage we produce, and where our garbage and sewage go. Why, because in this week’s Torah portion, Shemot, it is written, “They gathered them into many heaps, and the land stank” (Exodus 8:10) While the Bible is referring to the frogs that died in the second plague, this verse also describes the present situation in Jerusalem, where in some neighborhoods garbage has not been removed in eight days. The upside of the garbage strike in Jerusalem is that we get a rare glimpse into how much waste our consumer society produces, and hopefully gain some resolve to reduce the amount of waste we produce. If this is what five days worth of garbage looks like, then what is our footprint after 500 or 5,000 days? When we throw it out, it doesn’t just go away but goes somewhere, in this case to sit in the holy city.
By contrast, San Francisco recycles or composts about 78% of its waste stream, and aims to achieve zero waste in the next four years—taking it to a place “Where No City Has Gone Before.” Jerusalem is on the other end of the spectrum—doing a good job recycling large plastic bottles, but rating poorly in most other parts of the waste stream. Three and a half million tourists come to the holy city each year, and many wonder why there is so much a litter lying on the ground.
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