GET INVOLVED WITH EARTH DAY 2023

Sunday, 23 April, 2023

Have a rubbish Sunday!

Earth Day is on April 22 every year – so could your church mark Earth Day in its Sunday service on April 23, 2023 – and have an offering or raise some funds to twin a bin or two? 

Here are some ideas for how your church could mark Earth Day! 

• Bake for bins! Hold a Big Bin Bake Sale either before the service starts, or at the end 
• Walk for waste! Challenge your church to ditch their cars and swap fuel for footsteps by all walking to church. And put all the money saved on fuel towards as many bin twins as possible!
• Going, going, green! Ask the whole church – or make this a youth challenge – to ask people to pay £1 or £2 to come to church dressed head-to-toe in green clothing from your wardrobe – or your local charity shops. Maybe have a competition to reward the Worst Dressed Person with a prize!

Why Earth Day is so important 

Country spotlight: Democratic Republic of Congo 

In December 2022, more than 100 people were killed in landslides and floods in DRC’s capital city of Kinshasa. They were the worst floods in years, and evidence of why Kinshasa’s plastic problem is deadly. 

With no formal plastic waste collection in Kinshasa, people who live close to the river often throw their waste into it. The plastic stops the river from draining properly. In December 2022, some places saw two metres of flood water, filled with waste, reach up to people’s roofs.

Bin Twinning’s DRC partner runs a hub where waste pickers are paid by the kilo for plastic bags and bottles. This plastic is then sent to a factory where it is melted down and mixed with sand to become eco paving bricks. 

‘Thanks to this work, we can send our children to school and they have food to eat. We can afford to go to hospital if we are sick. Some of us have even built houses,’ says François, the manager of a waste collection point.  

Before mum-of-four Jeanne got a job in the brick-making factory, she was struggling to earn enough to feed her children once a day. Now, life is still difficult, but she can at least afford three meals a day, and her children go to school. And, she’s proud to have a job that is helping the local environment. 

‘Here in Kinshasa, the waste is a big problem because people throw it wherever they want. With this job, we raise awareness about the flooding problems that are caused by plastic blocking the river.  And we transform the plastic into useful things. It no longer brings disease but makes life better.’

Click to watch Jeanne tell the story of Bin Twinning’s work in Kinshasa, DRC.