Recycling Guide for Western Sydney

It's God's good Earth so care for it by recycling!

Enjoy!

1. Plastic bags
Plastic bags should not be placed in the yellow recycling bin. Soft plastics and plastic bags can be recycled through soft plastic drop off bins at supermarkets.
Woolworths
Coles

2. Ripped or torn clothing
These cannot be recycled but can be re-used. Old t-shirts, torn towels and linens make good cleaning and dusting rags - no need to buy cleaning cloths. After use put these in your red lidded bin. 

3. Electronic waste
mobiles,TVs, video and DVD players, stereos and speakers, printers, fax machines, electronic games and toys, game consoles, digital and video cameras, desktop and laptop computers, computer monitors, keyboards, computer mouse, hard drives, motherboards, network, video and sound cards, cables, microwaves, vacuum cleaners, hairdryers, alarm clocks, toasters and kettles, irons, drills and other power tools
PCRC
SUEZ Seven Hills

4. Aluminum foil
It goes in your recycling bin. Small pieces get lost in the recycling process so save foil and roll into a golf ball size to recycle. Foil with grease can be recycled, just make sure you give it a quick wipe. 

5. Nappies
These are not recyclable and should go in the red lidded bin. Maybe think about how to change to a more sustainable alternative. Read the Choice disposable and cloth nappy buying guide

6. Household batteries
ALDI, Battery World, PCRC

7. car batteries
PCRC

8. paint
PCRC

9. polystyrene
PCRC
HCRC

10. smoke detectors
PCRC

11. light globes
Incandescent globes and halogen can go in the red lidded garbage bin.
Compact fluorescents globes contain toxic mercury and need to go to a recycling centre ie
• compact fluorescent lamps
• fluorescent u-tubes
• linear fluorescent lamps
• mercury vapour lamps
• metal halide lamps
• sodium vapour lamps
• uv Lamps
• led tubes.
PCRC
Household Chemical Cleanout
Ikea Marsden Park

12. gas bottles and fire extinguishers
PCRC

13. motor and other oils
PCRC

14. polystyrene
PCRC

15. Clothes
Racer Allround Recycling

16. Shoes
Racer Allround Recycling

17. Handbags
Racer Allround Recycling

18. Soft Toys
Racer Allround Recycling

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Penrith Community Recycling Centre
(PCRC)
Gate 3, 96 Dunheved Circuit, St Marys
02 4732 7777
Monday to Friday - 8.30 am to 2.00 pm
Saturday - 8 am to 12 noon
Sunday - closed.

SUEZ Seven Hills M-F 7-4 S-S 9-4 free for  Blacktown Council Residents

Ikea 9am-3:30pm – 1 Hollinsworth road, Marsden Park

Racer Allround Recycling
Facebook
9607 9999
Drop off bins
WENTWORTHVILLE  – Station street, the Kingsway, Commuter carpark
TOONGABBIE  – Wentworth avenue
ST MARYS  - Corner of Forrester road and Glossop street, mosque carpark, inside gate, Enter at Glossop street.

Hawkesbury Community Recycling Centre

(HCRC)

 1 The Driftway, South Windsor.

I would like a car with cruise control

I would.

All of my friends have one ... Well, I haven't actually done a survey to say that for sure, but it is a pretty fair expectation for anyone with a solid job. No sense of privilege.

My devotion mentioned Matthew 7:7 "Ask and it will be given you." Initially I thought, "I don't need anything, I'm so over things. They don't have any power over me."

Then I thought about the cruise control. I would like one.

Then I thought about the people I visit around the world. One of them has a bike, with one good pedal.

It became a rights issue. What right do I have to use all those resources to get a car with a cruise control - a luxury none of my friends, no one in my culture, would deny me.

Of course the car I have or don't have won't much help my friend with a dud pedal - not unless I make the connection. Less stuff for me and more for him and his community, that would be good for both of us.

It's wallowing in first world guilt of course, but a bit of guilt might just be a path to a new, fairer and healthier world for all of us.

Big World Small World

https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2018/apr/23/population-how-many-people-can-the-earth-sustain-lucy-lamble?CMP=share_btn_link

This article looks at the dilemma of the world's rapidly growing population. It touches on two possible futures, albeit indirectly, one where we use technology to reduce population growth, and another thwhere we embrace a big world where the growing population produces a bouyant economy for all.

My first reaction was that we need to shift our spending from keeping old white people alive to keeping young black people alive. Let's put out effort in where it is most needed. Let's give every one an equal chance at lifel. You can see what a huge change in our global mindset that this would need, and you can imagine the philosophic discussions it would generate.

The deeper question it later provoked was this: If God has a future for our world, what dues it look like? Is it one where the system God had set up checks itself by reducing the population as we approach the capacity of the earth. In this scenario we aid God by contraception and population control in general. Ethical dilemmas like who do we could in population control quickly emerge.

The second option is much more bold. It says the population of the earth is essentially limitless.  It says, as we learn to live with each other we will find ways to use the world's resources more economically, drawing from them a lifestyle for all which we can't currently imagine. Reduced consumption, more efficient production and better sharing would be it's hallmark. In this scenario how we live together rather than population control is in focus.

There is of course the possibility that there is a third scenario that I haven't thought of. The point is really that if God expects us to work for charge in this world, as God does, there must be a sustainable end point toward we were are working, this side of heaven. Then there is another discussion about where the boundary between here and heaven is.

Rocky Road

Craig McLachlan got the raunchy role of Frank-N-Furter because he "steps out far beyond what most other performers can do".  His presentation of promiscuous and sexually exploitative behaviour is what audiences want.  Now we are telling him that in the acting workplace as distinct from the acting role, this kind of behaviour is not ok.  There is a fine line there.  This is not to excuse Craig, should a court find him guilty.  It is however to remind ourselves that as shapers of our culture we all have some responsibility for allowing things that are not ok to be seen as ok.

Why you should give a goat this Christmas

I think David Sanderson would see himself as a supporter of those who are poor in our world, but his article "Why you shouldn't give a goat this Christmas" adds confusion rather than support to their case.

The goat of course is the quintessential Christmas gift from an Australian NGO. Your donation goes to a project which includes goats and your friend receives a card letting then know of you very practical love for them and for someone far away.

Firstly, David points out some of the things that can go wrong with aid and assumes that the goat is a victim of these. There have been some bad mistakes over the years, But the NGO community puts a high value on learning from them. If the NGO behind the goat is a member of ACFID, they will be carefully examining the goat project to make sure that locals get good value out of it. The goat, for example, would be sourced as close as possible to its new owner. This will stimulate the local economy adding to the benefit the recipient, who will probably be required to return a kid to the program within two years, kept accountable and encouraged to see the wider picture of positive change for everyone.

Secondly, David conflates at least three types of aid: bilateral - from government to government, private aid - from NGO to NGO, and emergency aid, which is delivered response to a crisis.

It is bilateral aid which has the worst reputation for importing goods rather than stimulating local markets. Plenty of Chinese product is going into African infrastructure right now, and Australia has also insisted use of Australian goods and services. Governments like to stimulate their own economies. NGO's on the other hand really need to justify importing goods, and there are times when this is necessary, for example, if the technology is just not be available locally, or in an emergency, where some essential supplies may have been wiped out.

As David says cash handouts are increasingly being used as an efficient form of emergency aid. The goat, however will be part of a longer term community development project which is aiming to change the opportunities of a community.

There are good reasons to buy a goat this Christmas. If it is from an ACFID member NGO you can be assured that their operation meets a high standard. The goat money will get there. The first thing it will do is stimulate a struggling local economy with demand for the essentials of life, Then the goat will arrive at someone's humble door, communicating a message of solidarity. The wealthy people across the sea do care. Finally, two years down the track a family will have a new income stream which will help them send their kids to school and put food on the table where there was none. That's a lot more like Christmas than another gingerbread house for Aunty Flo!

Celebrating the King of the Universe

What would celebrating a universal King that was born in a manger look like? We are nervous defaulting to familiar practices of our culture, decorations, feasting, and gift giving. We know how these have been corrupted. And we are are nervous doing something special, because the subjects of the universal King know that honouring Him can only be a full-time and lifetime pursuit.

The Bible nevertheless makes a big place for celebration and they are celebrations that use the cultural forms of their time and place. Celebration is central for the servants of the King. It re-cements critical events and their significance into our psyche. In that way it helps us be better subjects of the King throughout the year.

So what would celebrating the coming of the universal King to a manger look like? It would have to use the forms of our culture, and it would tell the story of the King's great deeds - how he entered human time and space humbly and purposefully - to bring all things back to the rightful King. And it would lift up the lowly (Lk 1:52).

Essential to the reign of the King is the righting of human imbalances. Those who are left out are to be included (Lk 2:29-32). Those who are poor find new resources (Lk 1:53). These values challenge our culture. Over all our celebration they pleas restraint from the wastefulness and self-indulgence and we are so accustomed to. Most of all they challenge our practice of gift giving.

It is in giving gifts that we most easily forget the poor (Gal 3:10). It is too easy to give generously to those we know will give generously to us (Lk 6:34). This is not really generosity at all! Living in a world where material things are scarce for so many we really need to direct our giving to those with little first of all, not just at Christmas.

So here are my tips for a holy but Australian Christmas.

Decorations
1. Have them! But focus on telling the story of the King - mangers, stars, magi. Drop the man in the red suit completely. The King is not honored by praise for impostors.
2. Have them but moderate your consumption. Put a limit on how many you will buy or how many you will have. Don't compete with the guy across the road on volume or your message will lose its credibility.

Feasting
1. Do it! Have food that you enjoy and don't usually have. If there is nothing in that category you have been indulgent all year round - try something simple! Put a limit on you consumption. Buy only what you can eat in one day.
2. Share it! Seek out people who are alone on Christmas day and invite them to your celebration.

Gift-giving
1. Make giving to the poor the major focus of you giving. Local and international mission agencies will give you plenty of options. For every gift you give your family, give a gift of equal value to those of lowly estate.
2. Limit your giving. Set a dollar limit together for your extended family. For the over 18's, put the names in a hat and each just buy a gift for one family member. Publish a list of what you would like so the gift isn't wasted.

Setting up tables and flipping them over

The Abbott government's overseas aid policy encourages engagement with the private sector.  For agencies following Jesus this means grappling with whether their role is to challenge business or to foster it.  Are they to follow Jesus in upturning the tables of the money changers in the temple (Mk 11:17), or in some less conspicuous example (Lk 14:13 for example) by boosting the livelihoods of the poor with business development and development by business.  Good governments, like thoughtful Christians, wrestle with the tension between these two competing calls for justice.

 

Jesus' most colourful and obvious interaction with business is his violent upturning of the money changers tables in the temple (Mk 11:17).  Entrepreneurial people had turned the need of worshippers into selfish business.  Jesus is quick to take them to task.

 

This incident reflects the churches role in challenging business when it is exploitative or inappropriate.  Campaigns for fairly traded products are a current example.

 

Jesus is also supportive of legitimate taxation (Mk 12:17), a challenge to both individuals and business today.  Churches and both sides of politics have taken up this challenge.

 

That people will engage on productive business to sustain themselves is the backdrop of the whole Bible (eg Ez 27:13,17,19,25; Mt 11;160.  Working for a living is the New Testament norm (2Th 3:10).  There is nothing intrinsically dirty about being involved in business.  Dishonest business dealings, of course, are called to account like every other unjust behaviour (eg Ho 12;7).
 

That churches find themselves amongst the poor (Jn 12:8), helping people get started in businesses is as it should be.  It is recognition that the goal is not to give people health and education and other services but to enable them to provide these for themselves and their families - even more - to have the resources to pursue their own hopes and aspirations, whatever these are.
 

"But what if a business we helped start turns into a greedy, exploitative monster!?"

Firstly, we need to recognise that this is completely possible in the most perfectly planned and executed project.  Development projects are like lighting a fire - you never know where they will spread because they are about freeing people to pursue their own hopes and aspirations.  We hope they free people to be more of what God has created them to be (Jn 10:10), but we know that freedom can be misused (1Co 8:9).
 

Secondly, Christians engaging in this space are challenged to build a better breed of business - one that makes profits but values people.  With what is often a long partnership to helping small businesses get started they have an ideal opportunity to do just that.  There are some of these out there and a few examples at home, but we could do with a lot more models of profit making, people valuing businesses.

So set up trading tables and flip them over, followers of Jesus and leaders of good government, but don't think that you can do only one or the other.  The deeper challenge is creating something that builds wealth and honours people.  Jesus says this is possible with a proper alignment of the heart (Pv 14:34), not merely choosing one side of a dilemma.