The Garbage That Is No Longer Garbage, but Wealth
HAVANA TIMES – Often, when I open an app on my phone or watch a movie on my computer, I hear a catchy little jingle that goes, “Lixo que não é lixo, não vai pro lixo, SE-PA-RE” (Garbage that isn’t garbage doesn’t go in the trash, SE-PA-RATE). The song encourages recycling usable waste instead of discarding it as usual.
This is part of a program by the city of Curitiba, Brazil to raise awareness about recycling and promote a culture of caring for our environment.
To that end, the Folha Family (Família Folhas), characters from a similar campaign in the 1990s, were revived. That campaign helped establish the city as an ecological capital and a national reference for environmental stewardship.
Every two weeks, right in front of my house, two trucks with the campaign logo and a large sign displaying the ideogram SE-PA-RE park for collection.
The first vehicle collects recyclable materials that neighborhood residents have gathered during that period. They weigh and store the materials, then provide a voucher for donors to exchange at the second vehicle for fruits and vegetables.
The exchange rate is one kilogram of food for every four kilograms of raw materials.
Thanks to this program, we have received squash, carrots, bananas, cassava, cabbage, beets, and regional products like chuchu (chayote).
For those not interested in receiving vegetables but who are environmentally conscious, the municipality has established a collection system on alternating days based on the type of waste: solid waste on Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays, and Sundays, and organic waste on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays.
Each house, group of houses, or building has a metal basket where residents deposit plastic bags. Some condominiums have two metal bins to differentiate waste types.
This system, besides being convenient for residents—eliminating the need to walk to the corner to dispose of trash—prevents the accumulation of germs in traditional trash cans, eases the workload for sanitation workers, and saves the municipality millions on the purchase and maintenance of trash collectors.
To illustrate how a sustainable culture can resonate with people, I recently heard a real story where a child said to his mother, “Mom, look, there go the garbage men.” The mother replied, “No, those are the sanitation workers; we’re the ones who make the garbage.”
It might seem simple, but this shift in perspective completely transforms how citizens view sanitation workers, elevating them above the haughty title of “garbage producers.”
Many street dwellers and humble individuals survive by recycling raw materials in a city that, while boasting a strong culture of sustainability, also has robust production activities and a thriving economy. This generates a large amount of recyclable material that would otherwise litter the streets as waste.