South Greensburg Church Team Recognized for Recycling Program
(Trib Live) Recycling is a matter of faith as well as good citizenship for a group of volunteers at St. Bruno Parish in South Greensburg.
The Creation Care Team’s drop-off recycling program for materials including metal cans and glass containers has been embraced by local residents. The effort also has garnered praise from Keep Pennsylvania Beautiful, a Greensburg-based nonprofit whose mission includes encouraging cleanups of litter and illegal dumpsites across the state.
The grassroots recycling group is among organizations honored this year with Keep Pennsylvania Beautiful’s 2022 Community Partner Award. The award “recognizes volunteers for significant and positive impacts toward keeping local communities clean and beautiful.”
The Creation Care Team was formed in 2016, inspired by an encyclical issued the previous year by Pope Francis.
That message focused on “care for the natural environment and all people, as well as broader questions of the relationship between God, humans and the Earth,” said Tom Niggel, a founding member of the volunteer group.
Other group members have included area college professors and two Sisters of Charity of Seton Hill.
That initial gathering of seven people, Niggel said, decided to “spearhead an action plan to address the recycling issue in South Greensburg. Because the number of residents in the community is below the threshold that mandates (curbside) recycling, there was no active program to address waste.”
