Palm Sunday is going “green.”
This year, more than 2,130 congregations across the USA, including Catholics, Episcopalians, Lutherans, Methodists and Presbyterians, will use “eco-palms” that are harvested in a more environmentally friendly way, says Dean Current, program director at the Center for Integrated Natural Resources and Agricultural Management at the University of Minnesota.
The number of churches using eco-palms on Palm Sunday ”” which, in the Christian faith, marks Jesus’ triumphant return to Jerusalem before his death and resurrection ”” has grown from a pilot program of 5,000 in 2005 to the 600,000 eco-palms ordered for this year’s March 16 celebration, Current says. He estimates that is about 1.5% of the 35 million to 40 million palms sold annually for Palm Sunday services in the USA but says he expects the growth to continue.
What makes the eco-palms different is the way that they are harvested, says RaeLynn Jones Loss, a research specialist at the University of Minnesota.
More than 50% of the palms are wasted by traditional methods, Jones Loss says. Harvesters in the eco-palm program are trained to be more selective. They cut only the best fronds, which results in only 5% to 10% waste.
I discovered when I arrived in Phoenix that we use the very greenest of palms. Parishioners bring them in from their backyards – usually as a result of their regular spring cleaning.
There’s a whole different feel to the Palm Sunday procession having people wave palms they bring from home. Makes it feel much more immediate somehow.
Somehow this seems like the wrong day to push ecology.
I don’t have a problem with this. At least they are not substituting origami palms made from leaflets of the MDGs. 😉
Nick, I live in south Georgia, and we pick our own palms too. Somehow it hadn’t occurred to me to wonder what the rest of the country does. 🙁