Spotlight on Sustainable Cities: Curitiba

Okay, new plan. Instead of whining about my exams every day, I'm just going to tell you stuff I'm studying. I win: by blogging about this stuff, I'm reviewing it. You win: you get to read about some cool stuff. So here is my first installment in my potentially ongoing series on sustainable cities.

Curitiba, Brazil. Population: 1.6 million


Many of you may be familiar with Bogota, a city now famous for its rapid bus transit system. But in fact, Curitiba was the inspiration for Bogota's bus system.

Back in the 1960s, Curitiba's planners decided to develop a city that would service the bulk of the city's transport needs. So instead of building the city for cars, which would only service the minority of the population that could afford a car, they decided to design the city for efficient bus transit. Thus, the city was designed to promote equity. Buses were chosen for a simple reason: they're cheaper. (Los Angeles, take note.) The designers of Curitiba recognized that they could build an efficient, well-designed bus system at a fraction of the price of a subway system.

The bus system was designed and refined over the years so that there are now three different types of buses. The rapid transit buses, the inter-district buses which run the long haul trips, and the local feeder buses that feed into the rapid transit and inter-district buses. Everyone pays a single fare which includes transfers. This means that the poorer people who often live on the edges of the city are not forced to pay more than the richer people who might be able to afford to live within the city center.

Now, you may think that the bus system alone is enough to make Curitiba awesome. And it is. By the 1990s, two-thirds of Curitiba's population used public transit!

But public transit isn't the only area that Curitiba excels in. It's also won two awards from the United Nations Environment Programme for waste management. Curitiba has come up with an innovative solution for dealing with sanitation issues in the favelas, or squatter settlements. The government instituted a program that allowed residents of favelas to turn in their trash in exchange for bus tickets or food. This greatly improves the quality of life for the urban poor. And the program doesn't cost anymore than it would cost the government to hire out a private contractor to collect the trash.

Curitiba also boasts an amazing rate of recycling: approximately 2/3 of the city's waste is recycled! The money that the government makes from the recycling gets funnelled into social programs for low-income sectors, including environmental education for children. Children learn how to recycle and grow vegetables. The teenagers can use their gardening skills to earn money for their neighborhood associations.

Think this sounds great, but what about the parks? Well, Curitiba has loads of those too! And not only are the parks there for recreation and green space, but they also serve a vital need. Many of the parks contain artificial lakes, and these lakes serve as flood control for the city.

Now, certainly, every major city has its problems, and Curitiba is no exception. It's not a perfect city. But it is an example of innovative and inexpensive urban design. It's an example of a city that has learned to harmonize environmental sustainability with people's welfare. In short, it's an example well worth emulating.

Picture courtesy of flickr user xander76

Live Photo-Blogging the Weekend Crap Cutting Marathon

I don't know if I've ever mentioned this, but I kind of have a purse addiction. So you can understand that it was hard to get rid of these. I am so brave!

Let's not discuss the 12 purses still in my closet.

This is an antique from the 1990s. I am pretty sure there is no one from this decade who wants it (plus I lost all the accompanying software) so I guess it's getting responsibly e-cycled.

Can I remember the last time I needed to staple something at home? No. But luckily were I ever to need a stapler, I have three in various sizes and colors!

The white-board markers are from my days teaching for the SAT. Don't ask me why someone over the age of 10 needs scented markers. I kind of want to sneak these all stealth like in to a school somewhere. I'm not entirely sure that it's worth the potential breaking and entering charge though.

This is a pretty cool clock, n'est ce pas? I really like this clock. Notice, however, that this clock is clearly on the FLOOR and not say, on a wall. I am having a hard time letting go of it, but I am also kind of skeptical I will ever hang it up.

That's a lot of crap!

This is my kitchen trash can.

It's way too big for my tiny kitchen. When I bought it, I was resigned to it's size. Doesn't everyone need an enormous kitchen trash can? Now that I generate almost no trash it's become somewhat of a pain. The small trash bags I use are swallowed by the can. Today it occurred to me, why do I need this big trash can? So I decided to move my smaller bathroom trash can into the kitchen.

See! It fits under the sink!

I am very happy with my new kitchen trash can. But I still needed some sort of trash can for the bathroom. What could I use?

Brilliant or crazy?

Brilliant!

Cut the Crap- Weekend Blitz

When I was a kid, I was kind of a freak. Let me give you a good example. Every year, I would look forward to the end of the school year. What's so freakish about that, you might wonder? Every kid looks forward to summer vacation.

Yes this is true. But the truth is, it wasn't summer vacation that I was anticipating so hotly. I was excited because summer vacation meant that I had time to spend a week cleaning and re-organizing my room!

No, I swear, I am not making this up. Nor was this something I was forced to do, or even ASKED to do. In fact, if my mom is reading this blog post, she can attest to the veracity of this. Ever since the summer after fourth grade, I would spend a week completely re-organizing everything. Toys I never played with either were given to my sister or got thrown away. The artwork I thought was impressive got saved, the stuff I wasn't proud of I tossed. As for my school papers, those got organized in files. Yes, I developed a filing system for school work as a fourth grader. Did I miss my calling as a librarian? The school work I didn't care about got thrown out, but everything I thought could be important as reference, or everything I was proud of (I have a file that says, "I got a 100% on this test!") got put neatly in file folders. 

As a result, I can show you my 5th grade State Report in about 5 seconds. My fourth grade "Discover California" reports would probably take longer. Let's say 2 minutes. My 8th grade vocabulary lists? Piece of cake. Let's say 5 minutes. My twelfth grade physics papers? Ummm ... gee, I don't know what happened to those. They clearly weren't very important to me.

I did attack my whole bedroom with my cleaning and re-organizing frenzy, but cleaning out my desk was the most important thing to me. Once all my old school papers had been put away properly, I felt I could put that grade behind me. Fifth grade was not truly over until it was all nicely filed away. And then I could really start to feel like a sixth grader. Because of my summer organizing, I had much less crap than most kids. Because frankly, I was brutal. If I couldn't find a proper place for the spinning top I got in a goody bag, I just threw it out. 

I continued to do my summer re-organizing, or some sort of version of it until I graduated from college. All of a sudden, I was faced with the fact that jobs don't let you out for the whole summer. And if you only get two weeks vacation, you don't so much want to spend one of those weeks re-organizing your apartment.

So the crap started to build up. 

I have tried to get rid of my crap TWICE in the past few months. Once in February, I made it my monthly challenge. That didn't work out, so I joined Chile's "Cut The Crap" challenge. Well, it's the end of the month, and I am still ... full of crap.

So ... I don't have a week. But I have a weekend. My mission this weekend is to do the impossible. I am going to try and rid my apartment of as much crap as I can. Let's see if I am up to the challenge. 

Because seriously. Fourth grade me sets a high bar.

Wa-Pshhh! (That's The Sound of My Whip)

I got my computer back today! Hooray! Oh, computer, how I missed you. The last few days have been so lonely, like I was missing an arm ... or something. :)

Also, I think I managed to completely shock the guy behind the counter today because I took my iBook out of the padded plastic sleeve they gave me and then authoritatively said, "Here, you can take this back and reuse this for someone else's computer." I mean, really. I appreciate that they needed to protect my computer, but at this point, I had my briefcase with me and I did not need the sleeve. But I didn't want to watch them just throw the sleeve in the trash either!

"Okay," he meekly acquiesced, taking the plastic sleeve from me, and smoothing the creases from it.

Yes, Apple! You will reuse plastic sleeves, and you will like it!! Or else I will whip you all with my second-hand leather riding crop! (I do have a whip, right, Green Bean?)

Also, yesterday, I got an email from the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee asking me to "voice my outrage" about the price of gas. Now, look, I certainly am not pro-big oil profiteering, but I actually think the high cost of gasoline is a GOOD thing, and I wish the government would tax the hell out of gas here like they do in Europe. (And yes, I've heard the argument that a gas tax is a regressive tax, and I used to implicitly believe that argument too, until I read this blog post. Joe Romm makes a pretty compelling argument that the gas tax is only regressive across upper income groups.) So anyway, the DCCC wanted to know what in TARNATION I was paying for gas these days, and all the comments were like, "$3.70! Help!!" And I was feeling cranky and snarky, so I wrote, "NOTHING! I take Metro. Let's fund PT!!"

Yeah, they deleted my comment. I'm so proud of my Party.

Boooo

According to the Genius at the Apple Store, my iBook has a faulty logic board. Which means that it's going to cost $280 to repair (well actually replace). And on top of that, I will owe another $100 because my data isn't backed up, and they will need to do a data transfer.

Now, I do think repairing makes the most sense, financially and environmentally. Although there will be new parts involved, my understanding is that they will most likely be refurbished parts. So I think in terms of my non-consumer challenge, on that front, I can rest easy.

BUT, I do kind of wonder what will happen to my old Apple parts. From the reading I've done online, they do not give you your old parts back, so I will not be able to dispose of them in an environmentally sensitive manner. My suspicion is that they do reuse the old parts, but that they probably send them over to China for "processing." (If you need a refresher on the pitfalls of e-cycling read Cindy W's concise write up here.)I will certainly ask them for my old parts back, but I'm not holding my breath.

Life Less Disposable

Recently Colin at No Impact Man cited an amazing statistic by Heather Rogers, namely, that 80% of products sold in America are designed to be used once and tossed.

Now, I haven't read Rogers' book, Gone Tomorrow: The Hidden Life of Garbage, yet, nor do I know where she got such a statistic from. At first it seemed like such an outrageously high number that I was inclined to dismiss it. But the more I thought about it, the more I realized that there's an awful lot of stuff out there that fits the bill: envelopes, scotch tape, packaging, cotton balls, paper cups, Biore pore strips, PAPER, etc etc.

Since then, I like to play this little game with myself. My mission in this game is to find ways to use things TWICE.

I mean, look, first of all, I try not to use unnecessary one-time use products. And there's a lot of "disposable" stuff that I use over and over again. Ziploc bags are a good example. But there's also a lot of stuff I'm just not going to use 20 times or even five times. But, I can maybe find a way to use them twice.

Like envelopes. If I get a manila envelope that wasn't actually sealed, but just held shut by the brass fastener, I'll throw a label on over where my address was marked, and send that envelope back out to someone else. If the envelope was sealed, I might use the back of the envelope to make a grocery list.

Since I can't recycle carbon copy paper, I rip it up and use it to mark the pages in my books when I read something blog-worthy.

Paper gets de-bradded and de-paper clipped before it goes in the recycling. Yeah, you can keep that stuff in, but why, when you can re-use it!

Packaging materials get saved. All of it. Boxes, ribbons, wrapping paper, bubble wrap.

I will even on occasion use one tea bag to make two cups of tea.

And every time I come up with a way to use one more thing twice, I get all excited, like I've just advanced to the next round of America's Next Top Re-user. What that says about me and my life (or lack thereof), I don't know. ;)

Garbage Diary- Day 5

Only two things thrown out yesterday, the paper wrapper on my veggie burger, and the paper wrapper on my basket of fries when I went out to eat yesterday.

Overall, I think I'm doing pretty well, but I think today or tomorrow I have to clean out my house. I'm a lazy housekeeper and I haven't cleaned out the fridge in a month. This is the first weekend after the holidays that I have any free time, so that means sometime this weekend, I should probably get on that. I also have a stack of papers that I should go through, and I'm pretty certain some of them are going to end up in the recycling bin.

And that? Is going to mean a lot of trash.

Garbage Diary- Day 4

Sorry this is up late!

At Work

Trash:
3 tea bags
2 tea bag packets
Label backing
1 box of soup

At Home:

Recycled:
Toothpaste box

On the Town:

Trash:
Some mac & cheese I didn't eat

I went to a restaurant with a friend for dinner last night, and I was feeling very proud of myself for eschewing the paper napkin, and not creating any trash while dining out, when I realized I did create some trash: the mac and cheese I couldn't finish.

I ate most of it (well, my friend helped me out a little), but there were still probably a few spoonfuls left over.

Chile has been talking about food waste over at her blog. This is a hard one for me because I'm a fairly petite person, and portions are almost always too much for me at restaurants. Sometimes I take food home, but some food doesn't reheat well. That's part of the reason I love eating family style. If you split a few dishes with a bunch of people, as long as you get the ratio of dishes to people right, you shouldn't end up with ridiculous food waste.

I also have a big problem with food waste at home, too. Because I live alone, I find that I have to plan really, really carefully or else I end up with food that's gone bad or has expired. And while I think that a lot of those expiry dates are bogus, I'm reluctant to eat anything more than a couple weeks past its expiration. So now that I'm seriously thinking about my trash and food waste, I try to plan to use foods I already have so I don't waste, but I have to admit it's a little stressful sometimes. And sometimes when I make food, I feel compelled to eat even when I'm full because I don't want to waste food! Which is I guess good in terms of garbage, but bad in terms of my waist line.

Ideally, we'd plan our meals carefully, try to create less food waste, but we'd also have a way to recycle food scraps (even those of us in tiny apartments). Luckily if you live in San Francisco, this is a reality. The city collects food waste from residents and restaurants and it's turned into compost for organic farmers. Hopefully, one day, all cities across the US will implement plans to recycle food waste.

Garbage Diary- Day 3

At Work

Recycled
Cereal Box
Aluminum foil off of yogurt container

Trash
Plastic bag in cereal box
2 tea bags
2 tea bag packets
1 sugar cube (it fell on the floor)
1 orange peel
Piece of plastic in between yogurt and foil (What is the point of this, anyway?)

At Home

Recycled
8 envelopes
4 unsolicited postcards
Bulk mail
6 unsolicited letters

I finally paid the dollar to get myself off direct marketing lists, but I guess the change hasn't fully gone into effect yet, so I'm still getting unsolicited mail. I also get a lot of unsolicited mail to "So And So or Current Resident," and I'm not sure if there's an effective way to stop getting those. I once wrote, "Return to sender," and left it for the postal carrier, because I figured I'm not So And So, and the postal carrier put the letter BACK in my mail box and underlined the "or current resident part." I also don't know that there's a way to get out of the bulk mail. I know that someone in building has written on his box, "No bulk mail, please," and I keep meaning to ask him if it actually works. Because doesn't the post office get PAID to deliver you that bulk mail whether you want it or not? And if they don't, aren't they in violation of their agreement with the bulk mailers?

Canned Carrot Good

Dear Canned Carrot Good,*

First of all, I'd like to start off by saying that you do great work and I support you completely. I think carrot goods are great, but I also firmly believe in CANNED carrot goods. And I understand that right now you are fighting an uphill battle given that the current administration's answer to uncanned carrot goods is, "Don't think about carrots." (Wait, I might be mixing my metaphors here.)

But anyway, I appreciate your pragmatism. You know that, like it or not, teenagers have carrots on the brain, and so we need to teach them about how to ... can. (Okay, now the metaphor is totally screwed up.)

The point is, I support you. I support you so much, that I already give you a regular contribution that is deducted from my credit card every month. I would like to support you more, but you know, I have a couple other charity organizations I support, and I'm not super rich. So I give you what I can.

In light of this, I would really, really like it, if you did not send me a solicitation letter every other day asking me to donate MORE money. I hate this for two reasons. One, it kills trees. Two, I hate to see you spending money to mail me things, when you could be devoting your scarce resources somewhere else.

Look, I promise you, when I win the lottery, I'll send you more money. Okay? And, you know what? You can also send me all the email you want. I don't mind. Seriously. But PLEASE. PLEASE, STOP sending me snail mail. It's driving me nutty.

Thanks for all your work.

Your friend,
Arduous

*Name changed to protect the innocent

Garbage Diary Day 2

Work

Recycled:
29 Christmas cards
2 letters
2 envelopes
4 brochures
9 DVDs
1 postcard
Cracker Box

Trash:
2 clementine orange peels
Plastic bag inside box of crackers

I didn't actually throw anything away at home.

One word. Plastics

Okay, I knew plastics were sort of evil, right, or at least I understood this in theory. But I always assumed, hey, it's recyclable. And nothing recyclable can be that bad, right?

Well it turns out plastics aren't SORT of evil. They're really evil. Here's what Elizabeth Royte has to say about plastics in Garbage Land:

Plastic isn't truly recyclable in the way that glass, metals, and fibers are. Streams of mixed plastic can be turned into only one other product (plastic wood, garden pavers, or toothbrush handles, for example). When their useful life is over, these products cannot be "recycled" again. They have to be burned or buried. Either way, they add toxins to the environment. Unmixed streams are another matter: they actually can be refashioned into bottles and containers. But there isn't much demand from their makers for recycled plastic. Virgin is so much cheaper.

So basically, every time you throw a plastic bottle into the recycling bin, you are merely delaying the plastic's trip to the landfill. Yes, recycling is better than not, but we really should just reduce our plastic waste. While I'm not ready to go plastic free, I'm going to make more of an attempt to buy things in glass bottles, and to reuse the plastic containers I buy.

Getting Trashy

I've started reading "Garbage Land," and I have to say, trash is a lot more interesting than I would have thought! Or maybe it's just that Elizabeth Royte makes it interesting. One of the more fascinating points she brings up is about the history of trash. At the beginning of the twentieth century- reducing, reusing and recycling wasn't just for the environmentally conscious, but was built into the fabric of society. Virgin resources were expensive, so people reused everything. Food waste was fed to pigs, even in New York City, which was home to 100,000 pigs in the late 1800s. Chicken bones were given to the rag and bone man. In short, one hundred years ago, society was set up for reuse, whereas today's society is set up for disposability. Royte offers us some hard statistics about our disposable culture: According to the EPA, the average American throws out 4.5 pounds of garbage per day.

4.5 pounds! How much did my garbage weigh, I started to wonder. I feel like I'm relatively conscious of what I throw out, but doesn't everyone think they throw out less than they actually do?

So for one week, starting today, I'm keeping a diary of everything I'm throwing or recycling. I'm going to do it for both home and work, but only the stuff at home is getting weighed because I'm not carting my work trash home to weigh. And since I don't have a kitchen scale, the trash is getting weighed on a bathroom scale, so I'm only going to have a rough idea of what it weighs, but I still think it will be illuminating. I'm also interested in this from an anthropological point of view, because doesn't everyone say that your trash says a lot about who you are? From half a day of diarying, I can already tell you, that my trash is telling me that I'm an obsessive tea drinker. Ah well. A girl's gotta have a few vices.