Waste Management and Recycling
Recycling is one major thing that Curitiba is very good at. Curitiba has managed a 70% recycling rate, which means that only 30 percent of the trash actually goes to landfills. However, this is completely up to the citizens, and the recycling rate relies greatly on the citizens behaviour and actions. Everything that is placed into the trash area, are all put into one of the two main landfills of Curitiba. There is no checking, on whether if the trash are recyclable or not. Hence, the recycling rate depends on the citizens greatly, and this goes to education, how they citizens are raised and brought up to be environmentally friendly.
Children are taught at a very early age on how to reuse materials. For instance, children in school can exchange reusable materials, such as plastic, for newspaper, or chocolate, and much more. From this we can see the effectiveness of Curitiba’s education. They are able to teach the students the meaning of recycling, and the importance of it, at a very young age. This can allow recycling to become a habit for these children, so when they grow up, and know about why they are recycling, they will keep doing it.
Moreover, not only children are exposed to this kind of trading. Even adults, and people living in poverty, are allowed to exchange rubbish bags for bus tickets, and food. Following this, even low income families can have meals, as well as allowing them transportation for education, and to their working areas. Low income families, who do not have much education, and don’t know the purpose of recycling, can be taught to recycle as well. Even if they do not know the purpose, they are still recycling, instead of dumping all their rubbish bags into the trash area, they are giving it to others, who can help them recycle. Lastly, citizens can also exchange cardboard boxes, glasses, paper and other reusable materials, for local vegetarian products from the producers. Therefore, all of this added together, can benefit Curitiba in terms of environmental sustainability, as people are recycling more, and using less resources from the nature. They are causing less pollution, and by reusing materials, they can provide more than enough resources even for future generations.
Apart from that, these are not the only benefits that recycling has brought to Curitiba and its citizens. Due to there being recycling bins, as well as trash cans located in many parts of the city, it has helped the city become cleaner. Less trash are being littered, and more are being placed into these bins. Hence, these recycling bins has aided Curitiba into becoming a cleaner city, and thus has improved human quality of life, living in Curitiba. This has also brought advantages to the future generations, providing them a clean society to live in as well, and hence we see social sustainability.
However, more importantly, recycling helps solve problems in landfills. As Curitiba recycles a lot, the stress on landfills are greatly diminished. For instance, less trash would go to the landfills, and in comparison with cities such as Hong Kong, the landfills problems are much smaller. It takes a massive amount of space to create landfills, and when the need of landfills is not that great, a lot less space would be consumed. Hence, from this we see social and environmental sustainability as well, as the land does not need to be flattened, to create the landfill. Apart from that, we are also preserving the land, so that we will be able to use it in the future.
Children are taught at a very early age on how to reuse materials. For instance, children in school can exchange reusable materials, such as plastic, for newspaper, or chocolate, and much more. From this we can see the effectiveness of Curitiba’s education. They are able to teach the students the meaning of recycling, and the importance of it, at a very young age. This can allow recycling to become a habit for these children, so when they grow up, and know about why they are recycling, they will keep doing it.
Moreover, not only children are exposed to this kind of trading. Even adults, and people living in poverty, are allowed to exchange rubbish bags for bus tickets, and food. Following this, even low income families can have meals, as well as allowing them transportation for education, and to their working areas. Low income families, who do not have much education, and don’t know the purpose of recycling, can be taught to recycle as well. Even if they do not know the purpose, they are still recycling, instead of dumping all their rubbish bags into the trash area, they are giving it to others, who can help them recycle. Lastly, citizens can also exchange cardboard boxes, glasses, paper and other reusable materials, for local vegetarian products from the producers. Therefore, all of this added together, can benefit Curitiba in terms of environmental sustainability, as people are recycling more, and using less resources from the nature. They are causing less pollution, and by reusing materials, they can provide more than enough resources even for future generations.
Apart from that, these are not the only benefits that recycling has brought to Curitiba and its citizens. Due to there being recycling bins, as well as trash cans located in many parts of the city, it has helped the city become cleaner. Less trash are being littered, and more are being placed into these bins. Hence, these recycling bins has aided Curitiba into becoming a cleaner city, and thus has improved human quality of life, living in Curitiba. This has also brought advantages to the future generations, providing them a clean society to live in as well, and hence we see social sustainability.
However, more importantly, recycling helps solve problems in landfills. As Curitiba recycles a lot, the stress on landfills are greatly diminished. For instance, less trash would go to the landfills, and in comparison with cities such as Hong Kong, the landfills problems are much smaller. It takes a massive amount of space to create landfills, and when the need of landfills is not that great, a lot less space would be consumed. Hence, from this we see social and environmental sustainability as well, as the land does not need to be flattened, to create the landfill. Apart from that, we are also preserving the land, so that we will be able to use it in the future.