The Waste Picker Dilemma
Friday, March 20th, 2009This interesting article from IPS about a conflict in Nicaragua between waste pickers and local authorities illustrates very well some of the many dilemmas waste pickers pose to formulating and implementing waste policy in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC).
Brazil to Release GHG Inventory for Waste & Sanitation Sectors / Brasil vai divulgar dados sobre a emissão de gases de efeito estufa do setor de resíduos sólidos e efluentes
Monday, December 29th, 2008While many developing nations — including most Latin American and Caribbean (LAC) nations — are content to submit the minimum communication required under the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), Brazil has not taken the easy route. If you check the Temas listing of national greenhouse gas (GHG) inventories, you’ll see that no less […]
Rio’s Commitment to Tackle Sewage and Trash
Friday, December 26th, 2008It’s a bit of an open secret that the state of Rio de Janeiro, beautiful as it is, has a serious trash problem. Litter is ubiquitous. Trash (particularly drink containers) choke many waterways and drainage systems. While the state has a reasonably good record in providing waste pick-up services to its residents, disposal has been […]
It’s Clean Up the World Weekend — Get Involved!
Friday, September 14th, 2007This weekend across the world, including much of Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC), people will be joining NGOs and community groups in events designed to clean up beaches, coastal waters, rivers, lakes, parks, reserves and their surroundings as part of the annual Clean Up the World Weekend. Copied below is the official press release […]
Sao Paulo’s Green Cities Program Launched / Lançamento do Projeto Município Verde de São Paulo
Saturday, July 21st, 2007Synopsis in English: São Paulo State’s governor, José Serra, and Environment Secretary, Xico Graziano, recently announced the formal launch of the “Green City” project promised as part of the Governor’s package of 21 strategic environmental measures. By early July, 393 of SP’s 645 cities had already signed onto the program’s protocol of 10 commitments, covering […]
More Dumps Than Municipalities / Mais Lixões que Municípios
Sunday, June 3rd, 2007I came across this tidbit during my eternal quest for information/data on waste in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC). [Yes, yes garbologists are strange that way.] It seems that authorities in the northeastern state of Bahia have determined that there 438 trash dumps in the state, even though there are only 417 municipalities, yet […]
RJ State Seeks to End Era of Municipal Dumps
Monday, April 2nd, 2007Synopsis in English: The State Secretary for the Environment (SEA) of Rio de Janeiro (RJ) state, Carlos Minc, has announced a new program aimed at ending once and for all the era of uncontrolled municipal trash dumps in that state. The program would form regional consortia of municipalities that would a shared sanitary landfill constructed […]
Poll on Brazilian Attitudes Regarding Sustainable Consumption
Friday, March 30th, 2007The Foundation for the Defense of the Consumer of São Paulo State (Fundação de Proteção e Defesa do Consumidor – “PROCON-SP“) has just released the results of a recent survey it conducted on the attitudes of Brazilian consumers regarding “sustainable consumption and living.” PROCON is the state consumer protection agency created in 1976, a full […]
Como tener éxito trabajando con “basura” en Latinoamérica
Tuesday, November 21st, 2006In Part I I looked at Andreas’ work on building housing and other structures out of discarded materials such as PET bottles and tire rims. Here is a guest blog authored by Andreas himself. I asked him to share the challenges he faced in making such projects successful in a poor country such as Honduras, […]
More Construction with PET Bottles
Tuesday, November 21st, 2006In a prior entry I introduced you to Brazilian experiments with constructing homes using PET bottles. Today I’ll introduce you to Andreas Froese, a man who not only did it first in Honduras, but has gone much beyond the experimental stages to actually build over a dozen homes and community centers made of PET bottles, […]
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