Here in Brazil, some friends decided to put a new spin on April Fool’s Day. The prank was this: instead of tricking people with an “untruth,” why not encourage people by announcing something that we wish were true.

“We decided to come up with some ‘fictitious’ headlines that we would like to announce. But the good news is that all this is really possible. It could be true.” As Claudio Oliver, the Coordinator of the Casa da Videira Collective, puts it: “These headlines can be true. They are based on lived experiences in Curitiba.”

What follows is my translation and adaption of one such announcement.

Such is “April Folly” in Brazil…..
And yet, we hope and trust that such folly is not “nonsense,” but a reflection of God’s own “foolishness” which the Bible calls “wisdom” (1 Cor. 1:25).

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The Zero Garbage Movement is on the Move
As of last week, the city of São Paulo no longer has anything to send to its landfills. What’s more, the same thing has happened in Rio de Janeiro, Brasília, Port Alegre, and in other 23 capital cities of Brazil. But how does one explain that a city–which until recently produced 13,000 tons of trash per day–has eliminated its garbage problem?
The solution comes out of the city of Curitiba. After years of discussions, plans, and the search for a new landfill area, this solution actually came from the people themselves. The NGO, Casa de Videira, has spearheaded this new direction, inspiring both the “I’m My Own Trashman/Woman” Movement as well as “Landfill Boycott” Campaign. As a result, garbage is no longer seen as a “municipal service” problem, but rather as everybody’s problem. In other words, the people’s solution was simple: Put garbage back in the hands of the people.

It is estimated that in 2009 Brazil threw “away” (of course, there is no place called “away”) around 230, 000 tons of garbage per day, with more than half of that being domestic garbage. Now that households have opted for “Zero Garbage,” the peoples’ expectation is to end 2010 with zero garbage production in landfills!
Besides the incalculable environmental benefits, this measure saves millions in public funds–funds that had been earmarked for the creation of new landfills. But the question remains: What was the path that led here?
Here’s a short list of the urban solutions that have worked:
1. Composting: Food scraps are composted in worm bins calling transforming this material into humus.
2. Small-scale urban livestock: Raising chickens is another alternative for dealing with food scraps. In 24 hours, chickens produce wonderful fertilizer out of scraps that a landfill would just turn into methane and harmful run-off. Two chickens generally consume the food scraps for a family of 4 and, on top of that, produce organic eggs.
3. Community gardens: It’s possible to make use of empty city lots for the common good. This action actually results in lowering property tax values for the landowners by 50%. It is also a great way to use one’s compost and chicken manure (from actions #1 and #2). These gardens follow the lead of the Cuba’s community garden movement, where in the city of Havana alone, there are over 35,000 hectares of community garden space.
4.Pre-cycling: “Precycling groups” take recycling on step further by abstaining from buying plastics and other packaging materials.
5.“So Long, Plastic Bags”: The extinction of plastic bags throughout the whole city–whose numbers had risen to 120 million bags per month–has led to a new local small-business initiatives that produce affordable, reusable cloth bags.
6. Soap production: Hundreds of homemade soap factories are spreading throughout the city and have managed to reabsorb and transform all of the city’s used cooking oil into something clean and useful. The water supply thanks you for keeping it cleaner!
7. Bio-products: The eco-diaper and biodegradable health products industry have officially exploded, with thousands of households opting for cleaner and more comfortable solutions. Some other groups have formed to produce “humanure”–transforming human waste into fertilizer and ashes.
The newflash is this: The movement and the solutions are at hand. They just need to be heard, seen, and followed.
As Oliver adds: “The day will come when eyes will be opened to see that another world is not only necessary, but also possible and is, in fact, already happening.