“We strive to be good stewards of God's creation, through education and action.” 

Our next meeting is January 19th at 11:30 in the Church Library. Please join us if you have ideas or concerns.

Old and broken Christmas lights can be recycled by bringing them to Trinity, your local village hall or public works facilities.

Let 2025 be the year we continue our journey to Reduce our consumption. Bea Johnson, author of the book Zero Waste Home, has lived virtually waste free with her family since 2008. Her family of four generates a mere quart size jar full of waste per year. This is an unrealistic goal for most of us, but every little step we take in reducing our waste and consumption makes a difference. 

There are several things to consider around the kitchen. Kitchen sponges are typically made from plastic. When you wash your dishes with a sponge, it sheds tiny fibers. These fibers are a type of micro plastics that can’t be filtered out by water treatment plants. These end up in the ocean where they join the millions of metric tons of plastic dumped there every year. Sponges do a lot of disgusting jobs for us, and they can be magnets for germs and can become saturated with bacteria after a week or more of use. Some recommend tossing your sponge every week, others give several opinions on how to keep your sponges clean, such as putting sponges in the dishwasher, or in the microwave in order to extend their life. Sponges are virtually impossible to recycle, so perhaps returning to washcloths is a more sustainable and healthy option. Paper towels have become an essential part of many cleaning routines. It may be impossible to eliminate their use, but reducing our automatic reach for them is a step in the right direction. An easier transition may be from paper napkins to cloth. Prepared, convenience and processed foods often come with a lot of packaging. Making food from scratch can dramatically reduce waste, save money and create healthier alternatives. As an example, think about a canister of oatmeal versus a box of individually wrapped single serve packages just in terms of packaging and cost.

                                                  Green Team Tips


December Re-Gifting Event

In December, the Green Team will be hosting a Re-gifting Event. What is regifting? It probably got its name from a Seinfeld episode when a label maker was re-gifted to Jerry with a negative connotation. It is when a gift is received and for one reason or another is not used or appreciated by the recipient and thoughtfully passed on to someone who would enjoy it.  Recently regifting has gained in popularity and lost some of the negative connotations. This has to do with attempts to reduce consumption of more goods and using what we already have. Often unappreciated gifts will find their way to the back of a closet or basement and are forgotten about, or discarded and wind up in a landfill.

Our Re-gifting event will be a little different as you will not be passing the gift directly to another person, but rather bringing it to church, where they will be displayed, so you and others may select the perfect gift for that special person or occasion. It is called “the green gifting concept.” Most of us have those new or never used gifts lurking around and this is an opportunity to reuse, recycle, and repurpose gifts while giving something to someone who will use and appreciate it. It’s good for the environment. Instead of seeing some of those gifts end up in a landfill, why not give them to someone else who might really enjoy them?

If you wish to participate in this fun, environmentally friendly and useful activity on December 8th and 15th, we ask that you bring those new or unused items to church and place them in the designated bins. Please do not go out and purchase new items for this activity as it defeats the purpose of reducing our consumption. You may contribute as many items as you like, and do not need to contribute an item in order to take one or more on the days of the event. Any unclaimed items at the end of the event will be donated to local food pantries and thrift stores.

As part of the event, the Green Team has created gift bags by repurposing the red capes worn by the Cherub Choir in years gone by. You are encouraged to take home a piece of Trinity History!

Reduce, Reuse, Recycle

October Fabric and Textile Drive

 Thank you for your continued support of the Green Team initiatives. Our current project of textile recycling has ended. Thank you to all who contributed to this project reducing the amount of waste going into our landfills. For those who missed out, or those who wish to continue recycling their textiles we are including the contact information. 

Chicago Textile Recycling has two 24 hour drop boxes available. One is in Hillside, 250 North Mannheim Rd. unit B. Their other location is in Carol Stream, 171 S. Gary Ave. They also work with SWALCO (swalco.org) and have many drop off bins in Lake County, including Buffalo Grove, Deer Park, and Long Grove. Go to the website for addresses and hours of operation. CTR also partners with Sparrows Nest Thrift Store, 275 Northwest Hwy in Palatine. Let them know your items are for recycling and not suitable for resale.

Please continue to bring your newspapers that will be used for mulch, and place in the paper recycling bins.

Project Gratitude

Veterans Day is coming and if you have leftover yarn sitting around your home, here’s a project for you. Operation Gratitude sends care packages to deployed troops, veterans, and caregivers. In the cold winter months, they include a lovingly, handmade scarf or hat in every care package that is sent to troops. They are knitted and crocheted by volunteers across the country. If you’re interested in finding out more about this opportunity, please go to operationgratitude.com.

Green Team Tips

Reduce, Reuse, Re-Gift

1. Regift only if the item is in its original packaging with all its parts.

2. Don’t regift a handmade item. Anything someone made for you should not be given away.

3. Only regift if the item is new or unused.

4. Make sure there are no monograms or hidden notes inside.

5. Only regift if you know the recipient would like the item.

6. Put effort into re-wrapping the gift.

7. If you unwrap a gift from a friend and recognize it as something she got from someone else the year before, be gracious. Always assume the gift giver has the best intentions. After all, it really is the thought that counts.

Green Team Tips For Reducing Hidden Energy Drains


Unplug! Unplug all chargers and kitchen appliances when not in use.

Use Power Strips! Power strips are one of the easiest ways to stop your electronics from drawing power when not in use. You can connect multiple devices to one strip, like your TV, DVD player, gaming console, and sound system, and with a flip of a switch power them down all at once before you head off to sleep. Smart power strips are now available, automatically cutting off power to idle devices and saving you from manual switching it off.

Skip the Screensaver! Screen savers don’t save energy, in fact, they can keep your computer working harder. Instead, enable sleep mode or power save settings if you step away from your computer for more than a few minutes.

Buying Organic

Buy organic whenever possible. As you know, carbon builds up in the atmosphere and global temperatures rise. Researchers at Kansas State University, discovered how carbon gets stored in the soil, and looked at different farming practices. After comparing their results, the researchers concluded that soil treated with manure or compost fertilizer stores, more carbon than soil treated with chemical fertilizers or no fertilizer. Organics help our bodies by reducing the amount of chemicals consumed and help the planet by reducing carbon emissions.

Home Efficiency

Autumn is here and the temperature is dropping. It’s time to think of efficient ways to keep our homes, warm and cozy during the coming months.

  * have your furnace cleaned and serviced for best efficiency 

  * replace furnace filters regularly 

  * check for gaps in doors and windows that may require weather stripping

  * consider a free Home Energy Savings Assessment sponsored by Peoples Gas, North Shore Gas, Nicor and ComEd. You can visit eesavings.com or call 588–660–9378 to get started. You will receive customized tips, free, or discounted energy saving products, which may include an ENERGY STAR certified thermostat, LED bulbs, WaterSense certified showerhead, and faucet aerators and more. Have your account numbers handy before you start.

Autumn Leaves

Autumn is here and the leaves are beginning to fall. You don’t necessarily have to reach for that rake or worse yet your leaf blower.(Gas powered lawn tools, run on very inefficient engines. The motors put only about 60% of the fuel you put in to making wind, while the rest is admitted as aerosols. This mixture of carbon monoxide, nitrous oxide, and hydrocarbons is 300 times more potent than what comes out of the tailpipe of a pick up truck.) 

Everything that lives on your lawn, from the insects in the soil to the trees themselves, depends on nutrients in those dead leaves and the habitat they can create within the topsoil. Keeping that plant matter in the system is crucial to the nutrient cycle of your lawn’s micro ecosystem. Not everyone can just let those leaves pile up on their grass. If that’s the case, there are still ways to practice responsible, leaf removal.

Good : Compost your leaves

Pile them into a compost pile on your property. You can eventually spread the compost of leaf litter, which is naturally rich in nutrients like phosphorus and nitrogen, around the yard as a replacement for mulch or fertilizer.

Better: Pile leaves in tree beds

Rake the leaves under your trees. This provides nitrogen, sulfur, and calcium that flora feast on. This encourages the nutrient cycle by keeping the leaves on your property, particularly under the trees that made them.

Best: Leave the leaves 

Let the leaves fall where they may. That litter scattered across the ground helps, maintain soil moisture, provides winter homes for birds, bats, bees, and bugs and harbors, bacteria and fungi, which together help break leaves down into usable nutrients for the trees and plants. 

If you rake your leaves to the curb and have your village, collect them, check and see if they are composted or dumped in landfills. If not composted, encourage your officials to consider this option.