Q&A: Green Movements
Originally published:
This is an English translation (via GPT-5.4). Read the original Hebrew version.
Green Movements
Question
What is the Rabbi’s opinion of the green movement? Is there religious/moral value or obligation in avoiding the use of disposable utensils, recycling, and the like?
Have a good week!
Answer
You mean the green claims (not the movements). There is certainly moral value in avoiding this and in recycling. I didn’t understand the question. Is there a side that says otherwise?
Discussion on Answer
Well, claims according to which everyone is stupid usually don’t strike me as very convincing, even though I haven’t checked this in depth. When the questions are this banal, I also don’t think there’s much point in checking too deeply.
From an article by Hillel Gershoni on the Mida website:
Bottles do not pollute the environment if we throw them in the trash; they simply go to a landfill and stay there. In what sense do they pollute the environment? On the other hand, when you take the bottles, grind them up, and melt them down, that consumes a great deal of energy and creates a great deal of pollution, and a great deal of water and manpower are used for that. The trucks that collect the bottles also use a huge amount of energy. So I’m asking: how does this help the environment? Maybe it actually harms the environment?