Residents of Santo André, a Brazilian municipality in the state of São Paulo, can exchange recyclable waste for fresh fruit and vegetables.
Residents of Santo André, a Brazilian municipality in the state of São Paulo, can exchange recyclable waste for fresh fruit and vegetables. Named “Moeda verde” (green currency), the project aims to improve the quality of food for many poor families, so that they will be able to have fresh food on the table.
Thus, the separation of waste is not only good for the environment, but also improves the diet of the population, because here it works more or less like this: citizens select the dry recyclable waste they produce at home (such as newspapers, cans of aluminum, cardboard, PET bottles or glass jars) and can take them to one of the points of the green Moeda every 15 days. In all, there are 7 of them, scattered in the most vulnerable areas of the city.
For every 5 kg of waste delivered, the "donor" has the right to take home 1 kg of fresh products.
The initiative has already been a great success in the city and has already helped about 35 thousand people, including a lot in the problem of incorrect waste disposal.
This is because the exchange shares of recyclable materials with food from the “Green Currency” always occur very close to the main points of irregular waste disposal in the city.
Similar initiatives are also taking place in other municipalities, such as Guarujá, in Sao Paulo, Curitiba and Ponta Grossa, in Paraná.
What if we could all exchange recyclable waste for good quality food?
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