Posts Tagged ‘recycling’

Mangue Seco is about 200 km northeast of Salvador da Bahia. We'll be here for 6 days total. It's wonderful--not much to do but enjoy the mangroves, palms, endless white beaches, fresh fruit, fresh fish, and the best ice cream ever. We do not want to leave. I cannot wait to write more about it! It is hard to get here. You basically have to hire a car and then a small boat takes you to your pousada (inn). Lack of infrastructure has kept this place prestine--for the most part.

While I still have 'net connection, I do have to say that our biggest disappointment is the garbage. Trash collection is haphazard at best. The views are splendid, but the plastic bottles and bags can spoil the mood. Some of it washes ashore from elsewhere, but too much of it is because of the locals. Our innkeeper, Ives, does what he can, but it's an uphill battle. If you're old enough to remember paper straws . . . I wonder what you have to say if I opine that we should bring them back, especially to a precious spot like Mangue Seco.

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I’ve been to most large North American cities, and I have to say Ottawa has one of the more impressive recycling programs.  The city of Ottawa is hard on its citizens:  according to its data, Ottawa residents are in the middle of the pack, behind Halifax and Edmonton but ahead of Calgary and Montreal.  Here’s where I give Ottawa high marks: (more...)

I abhor receipts.  For years I’ve always had an oversized wallet, which looks impressive until you realize it’s full of receipts, not cash.  I try to be diligent about purging them.  Sometimes I take them out, stuff them in an envelope, which gets lost in my desk . . . and of course, the one receipt that I thought I needed never actually existed.  We have a shredder, so sometimes I’ll go on a shredding spree . . . and that, of course, is messy. (more...)

Clothing used to be a necessity, not an indulgence.  Until the first World War ago, clothing was generally functional (except for what the guys on US dollar bills are wearing, and of course those ridiculous corsets and frilly frothing dresses upper crust women wore at soirees, or on the set of Titanic).  Clothing was mended, patched, worn again, and eventually scrapped and remade into quilts or other household goods. (more...)

Those of us who lived a relatively sheltered suburban childhood in areas such as my old stomping grounds, Silicon Valley, are often first intimidated by big cities.  As a kid, San Francisco always seemed so daunting--admittedly, I almost always took BART, CalTrain, or the ferries to the city by the bay because driving just raised the hairs on my neck.  I visited New York for the first time when I was 19, and San Francisco became so innocent:  driving around Manhattan was terrifying!  Fast forward to the neon signs of Seoul and Tokyo, which I first visited in my 20s, and San Francisco and New York were just mere villages.  (more...)