May 10, 2007

MARQUETTE, Mich. – Lutherans in northern Michigan helped collect more than one ton of medicines and personal care products April 22 during the third annual Earth Keeper Clean Sweep. The pharmaceuticals had an estimated value of $500,000.

The pharmaceuticals will be taken to an EPA-licensed incinerator near St. Louis. The EPA is funding the collection of pharmaceuticals and personal care products because trace amounts of chemicals from those substances are turning up in U.S. drinking water.

The public had an "eagerness about being a part of the solution," said the Rev. Thomas A. Skrenes, bishop, Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) Northern Great Lakes Synod. "It was a morning of solutions to difficult problems, and I am proud of my church," he said.

More than 400 volunteers participated in the clean sweep – including 150 members of Thrivent Financial for Lutherans, a not- for-profit financial services membership organization and fraternal benefit society. Thrivent also provided financial support.

"We are in trouble with the way we live with the Earth" but the clean sweeps are humans correcting human-made problems, said the Rev. Jon W. Magnuson, co-organizer of the clean sweeps and director of Lutheran Campus Ministry, Northern Michigan University.

ELCA News Service