January 2025 UV EAT Update

Hello friends with UV EAT,

Once again, the planet reached another temperature record – 2024 was the warmest on record! As we continue to work together to build an ethic and practice of care for Creation, we also face these facts. Thank you for your resiliency and love.

We last met on January 11, 2025 and our next meeting is February 9 at Unity of the Valley’s Garden room, 12:15-1:30.

At our last meeting we decided to encourage an announcement/reminder and expression of gratitude to the congregation about plastics recycling, ideally for the 1^st Sunday (possibly different dates, depending on Ruth’s conversation with Gena). We also want to remind everyone to please wash and sort all plastics, per our guide below. 

Our next steps include  planning for a river cleanup in March and a visit from a representative from 350/Fossil Free Eugene.  Once the date is secure, we will invite the congregation to the presentation.

We also welcomed Mari and Maura to the group!

Betsy updated us on the work of the Eugene Interfaith Earthkeepers. The last meeting was led by the minister at First Congregational, Mark Lindberg, and thematically organized as “Stronger Together” on 1/12.  Here are the links to the group which also provides nicely distilled links to news about the environment and advocacy work.  https://interfaithearthkeepers.org/

We agreed as a group that we will begin taking steps to encourage the Unity Board to join the Interfaith Earthkeepers of Eugene/Springfield.  We will discuss this at our 2/09 meeting.

Mari suggested adding a local cleanup to our service activities and recommend that Adopt One Block.  https://www.adoptoneblock.org/

After some discussion, we agreed to look into adopting the block around Unity. Denise offered to contact them and bring details to our February meeting.

UV EAT plans to invite a speaker from 350 Eugene to tell us about their work here in Eugene to support clean and renewable energy for our communities. Learn more about them at these two links below:

350 Eugene - Home

FOSSIL FREE EUGENE

Plastics Recycling at Unity:

We can now recycle plastics that our local waste haulers (eg. Sanipac & others) won’t pick up. A volunteer will be available in the Garden Room after the service on the 2nd Sunday of each month, from 11:45 to 12:15 to collect your cleaned and sorted-by-number plastics. The EAT team meets after that if you would like to join in! 

Instructions:

• Remove all lids. Lids may be recycled but the number on them may differ from the container.

• Check any plastics to see if it has a triangle with a #2, #4, or #5 inside the triangle. We can only accept those numbers.

• CLEAN and DRY all plastics to be recycled, (We can’t accept them if not)

• First separate all items by number (see below)

        •    Sorting #2 Plastics:

                • Any #2 bottles or jugs that are larger than a tennis ball (=more than 2” wide x 2” tall) can go to local carrier. Do Not Bring here.

                • #2 bottles smaller than a tennis ball (eg, vitamin/prescription bottles.) For prescription bottles, remove label or black out names. Put these into their own bag.

                • Other #2s, such as tubs, bins, lids, PakTech beverage carriers/handles that have a #2 — all can go in another bag.

• Sorting #4 and #5. Put each into their own bag.

• Remove lids and check lids for their number to sort as well.

• We can take clean #5 plant pots smaller than 2 gallons.

• NOTE: We do NOT take any #1s, no plastic bags, or #5 plant pots larger than 2 gallons (which CAN go to BRING for resale/reuse).  Your local waste handler DOES TAKE #1 plastics as well as #2 plastic jugs and bottles larger than a tennis ball

Thank you for taking this small step with the Unity Environmental Action Team!

Unity of the Valley Environmental Action Team’s Territorial Acknowledgement:

Unity of the Valley is located on Kalapuya Ilihi, the traditional indigenous homeland of the Kalapuya people. Following treaties between 1851 and 1855, Kalapuya people were dispossessed of their indigenous homeland by the United States government and forcibly removed to the Coast Reservation in Western Oregon. Today, descendants are citizens of the Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde Community of Oregon and the Confederated Tribes of the Siletz Indians of Oregon, and continue to make important contributions in their communities, at UO, and across the land we now refer to as Oregon.*

*We thank the Native Strategies Group and the Department of Sociology at the University of Oregon for the language in this statement which we adapted to our group.