To view Justice & Peace Newsletters click here 

including latest download on Practical Action (on plastic waste)

Justice & Peace Minutes:

March 2024

April 2024

May 2024

September 2024

Election Questions and Responses

The Justice and Peace Group sent a number 0f important questions, based on an join initiative between CAFOD ad SVP to our local Parliamentary Candidates ahead of the General Election.  Click here to see the questions and responses received; also delayed response from Rebecca Paul (p.1 and p.2)

Our Parish has a committed Justice & Peace Group that meets on the second Wednesday of each month at 8pm in the PNL centre at St Joseph’s. All are welcome to come and join us to reflect on topical issues and how we can raise awareness in the Parish, engage with the wider community, and help to make the world a fairer place for all peoples.

Our various groups and activities in the parish include: Cafod; Traidcraft; Amnesty International; Gatwick Detainees. We also have regular prayer liturgies to pray for peace and justice.

THE PNL PARISH CHARITY

What is “The PNL Parish Charity”
A charity chosen by the PNL parishioners to support as our one charity.

Why have a Parish Charity?
Fr Kevin introduced the PNL Parish Charity. The nominated charity provides focus for parishioners to work together to support one charity for a defined period of time. The charity benefits too with larger funding for bigger projects.

Who decides?
Everyone in our parish can put forward and charity and vote.

How are charities chosen?
Every 1 to 2 years a new charity is selected for the parish to support. Ideas and suggestions come from parishioners, a short-list is drawn up by the J & P group and, if there are a number of suggestions, a vote is held in the parish.

What charity do we support? ….

Since the PNL Parish Charity was introduced, overseas charities have included the CAFOD Connect2 project, Warmi Hausi in Peru and Mary’s Meals.  Previous UK charities were the Manna Society in London Bridge, Depaul UK and the Medaille Trust, which came to an end in September.

Our New Charity for the Parish – one of the projects directed by Practical Action

This project aims to transform the lives of informal waste workers in Faridpur, Bangladesh by creating a new market for a stream of plastic waste that currently has no commercial value.

This project has several hugely advantageous effects:

• It improves the conditions of present waste-workers
• It provides new employment for local people
• It increases the income of local business and individuals
• It improves the environment through the removal of plastic waste from the waterways and surrounding land
• It helps to solve the problems incurred by the shipping of waste to Bangladesh from other countries
• It helps to decrease the quantity of waste that is carried into the Indian Ocean every day.

Context

As plastic waste flows downstream towards the ocean, this innovative project ensures its removal from the waterways, while creating local employment and better incomes at each stage of the recycling process.

Bangladesh is facing a serious waste management issue. The population generates around 800,000 tons of plastic waste per year, along with rubbish shipped to its shores from wealthier countries. With frequent rural to urban migration and ever-growing informal settlements, the mountains of rubbish in urban areas look set to increase. Local authorities lack the necessary funds to provide adequate waste services, while informal waste workers are poorly paid, unrecognised within society and subject to unhygienic, dangerous conditions and discrimination.

Without suitable disposal means, flimsy plastic waste blocks up drainage systems, polluting neighbourhoods and creating a health risk. Since plastic doesn’t biodegrade, it finds its ways into the river and eventually the Indian Ocean where it poses a significant threat to marine life.

Functioning as a pilot, the project is presenting and trialling a social, technical and business model for reducing the amount of plastic waste pollution in the local environment and oceans, that will simultaneously improve the lives and livelihoods of waste workers.

Our goals

• Establish a scalable, sustainable, and inclusive green business model which generates revenue through single use plastic waste treatment.
• Test financially viable, end-of-life treatment for low-value, non-recyclable waste (i.e. by pyrolysis) to sustain and increase corresponding job opportunities in waste management.
• Improve the local environment by reducing the disposal of single-use plastic waste into dumps and rivers by 70%.
• Reduce carbon emissions by 3000 tons per year from the treatment of 10 tons of plastic waste per day.

It is hoped that this project will stimulate us all to review and question our own use of plastic and other waste. Besides supporting the residents of Faridpur we can play our own part in improving our environmento