Change the World Wednesday – 16th Jul

Remember my green tomatoes from a couple of weeks ago?

Well, a couple of them actually turned red, small but ripe.

Ripening before the plant died off

And this was their fate…

A blurry pizza

Yes, they were sacrificed in the name of football (soccer) during the World Cup.

A couple of weeks ago, three actually, I harvested my chilies. Here is the bush again this week.

Ready to harvest again

I also have fresh ginger to pull when I need it.

This is one lot of ginger, there is another

And my guava are guavering…

Bunches of guava, soon for the plucking

I have so many guava, that I have been giving them to the neighbourhood kids, which prompted one of them to comment, “Você não é tal velho caduco),” (You’re not such a grumpy old man at all). Made me grin.

The produce shop has closed permanently, sadly 😦 It is becoming a neighbourhood pizza place…

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On with this week’s CTWW,

Plastic Bags!

Those evil things.

This week, ban plastic bags. Carry a reusable bag, use a box, or simply carry items loose. Say NO to plastic bags and don’t allow them into your home.

 

OR … If your home is plastic bag free, please refuse to buy anything which is packaged in plastic (I know … it’s truly a challenge … but I have confidence in you).

 

OR … Look around your home for plastic items and then, research non-plastic alternatives. If you are ready to replace the item, please do. If not, make plans to do so when the time comes.

 

I don’t qualify for parts 2 & 3.

But I do try to minimise my plastic bags. I try to take reusable bags, but don’t always find myself in a position to do so, my visits to the supermarket are often spontaneous, a decision made while out.

At the moment, one of my supermarkets is out of the paper option, and the girl at the checkout was packing my stuff. Sometimes she would put just two or three items in a bag, I complained bitterly, unpacking and repacking more items to reduce the number of bags.

My haul of bags from the supermarket

This girl had no idea. I might have been talking Portuguese (actually I was) and she still couldn’t grasp the idea that I wanted less plastic bags. The concept was totally beyond her. I reduced the number of bags by more than half had I let her do it alone.

I complained to the owner. We have spoken on many occasions, mostly complaints; Brazilians don’t complain, I do. I told him of my experience, and suggested that his staff training was lacking when it came to environmental issues. He agreed, and said he would look into it, and I know he will, he’s not Brazilian, but rather Portuguese and sees management from a European point of view.

So while I suffer plastic bags, I don’t do it lightly.

In this case, I hope that I have raised some awareness.

All those bags will be reused. Mainly as rubbish bin liners; buy plastic trash can liners, that I’d never do, our rubbish collections are not designed for trash cans. Also they are used for my recyclable items on Tuesday’s recycle collection. If I have a surplus, I give them to the botequim for take-aways, so he doesn’t have to buy plastic bags for customers to lug away their bottles.

Oh, and the people who use them to take away their beer, they’ll use them as trashcan liners. Triple and double use is better than single use.

Here in Brazil the lack of education, especially in environmental issues is almost non-existent, although small changes are being made in schools now, but it will be a generation before we see any real improvement.

Public utilities like rubbish collection need to change their ways before these horrid things become unnecessary. Park maintenance rakes up the leaves and mown grass and packs it kerbside in huge plastic bags for collection, the dice are loaded against us.

Meanwhile, here there is no escape from the ubiquitous plastic bag.

So while I fail at the CTWW this week, I do take remedial action.

Update:

Plastic bag use rises for fourth year

 

Monday Moaning

Stop Global Whining!

Everybody is hooked on plastic bags, on plastic packaging, etc. Although we have discovered that plastic bags only make up a small amount of the total pollutants (covered in a previous post), they are among the most visible.

We can find plastic bags hanging on trees and fences, blowing across the landscape, clogging ditches and waterways, choking marine life in the sea; not to mention the landfills are full of them.

Some countries have added a surcharge on plastic bags in supermarkets as a means of reducing their use. This has worked to a limited extent.

But we need to go further.

There is one country, and a most unlikely one, that has banned plastic bags of all types. You even get your baggage searched at the airport arrivals and any plastic bags are confiscated.

Think you can’t live without plastic bags? Consider this: Rwanda did it

As a post-genocide nation with a developing economy, Rwanda could have dismissed the bag ban as unnecessary. But it didn’t

A shopper carries her shopping with free supermarket shopping bags. Photograph: ANDY RAIN/EPA

On a recent trip to Rwanda, my luggage was searched at the border, and the authorities confiscated some of my belongings. No, I wasn’t trying to smuggle drugs or weapons. The offenders? Three plastic bags I’d use to carry my shampoo and dirty laundry.

You see, non-biodegradable polythene bags are illegal in Rwanda. In 2008, while the rest of the world was barely starting to consider a tax on single-use plastic bags, the small East African nation decided to ban them completely.

At Kigali International Airport, a sign warns visitors that plastic bags will be confiscated. Agents from the Rwanda Environment Management Authority (REMA) cut the plastic wrapping off negligent travellers’ suitcases. Throughout the country, businesses have been forced to replace plastic carrier bags with paper ones.

The ban was a bold move. It paid off. As soon as I set foot in Rwanda from neighboring Uganda, it struck me. It’s clean. Looking out the window of the bus that was taking me to Kigali, the capital, I could see none of the mountains of rubbish I’d grown accustomed to in other African countries. No plastic carrier bags floating in the wind or stranded on a tree branch.

Upon arrival in Kigali the contrast is even more evident. With its lovely green squares and wide boulevards, the Rwandan capital is one of the most beautiful cities in Africa. And it’s immaculate. Enough to teach a lesson to scruffy – albeit beloved – Western metropolises like New York or London. And the ban on plastic bags is just the start for Rwanda. It’s all part of the Vision 2020 plan to transform the country into a sustainable middle-income nation.

Eventually, the country is looking to ban other types of plastic and is even hinting at the possibility of becoming the world’s first plastic-free nation. Its constitution recognizes (pdf) that “every citizen is entitled to a healthy and satisfying environment.” It also underlines each citizen’s responsibility to “protect, safeguard and promote the environment”.

Throughout the world, many initiatives to reduce or ban the use of non-biodegradable plastic bags have been halted because of economic concerns. In England, for example, there is ongoing concern that a 5p levy on single-use carrier bags could harm small businesses.

Still reeling from a horrific genocide which resulted in the deaths of over 800,000 people in 1994, Rwanda could have dismissed the plastic ban as an unnecessary hindrance for its developing economy. It could have opted for a simple levy on plastic carrier bags, as have many other American cities. But the authorities’ main concern was the way in which plastic bags were being disposed of after use. Most were being burned, releasing toxic pollutants into the air, or left to clog drainage systems.

Knowing it lacked the basic facilities to sustainably manage plastic waste, Rwanda devised a clever strategy to turn the ban into a boost to its economy. The authorities encouraged companies that used to manufacture plastic bags to start recycling them instead by providing tax incentives. The policy also created a market for environmentally friendly bags, which were virtually non-existent in the country before the ban.

Now in its sixth year, the policy has proved efficient, if not perfect. Rwanda is starting to struggle with a lucrative black market for the shunned plastic bags. The excessive use of paper bags is also starting to raise concerns. But the mere fact that a developing country facing tremendous challenges has managed to enforce such groundbreaking legislation should make us wonder what the western world could achieve if the political will really existed.

Opinion:

If a country like Rwanda can do it, everybody can do it. Simple.

The problem is that we don’t really want to. Everybody moans and groans, and we pay lip service to the problem, but we don’t really want to give up such a convenience.

My message is Stop Global Whining and do it!

Only when we ban them completely will the problem go away.

Just because we can’t see it under the sea, doesn’t mean it’s not there!

 

 

Change the World Wednesday – 3rd Jul

I love being woken in the morning by the dawn chorus. I do not like to be woken by a chorus of dogs! Somehow it doesn’t have the same musical quality.

It’s now 10am, and the little bastards are still at it. I have dogs in home theatre, one on each side, and the main barkers in the park.

It’s enough to make a saint swear.

Last Saturday my two students, who are brothers, brought me a present. it was their last lesson for two months. They brought me a half dozen farm fresh eggs. Now that doesn’t sound like much, does it? But it was a marvelous present, absolutely wnderful and welcome

50 Shades of Yellow

I had bacon and eggs for breakfast two days in a row.

Talk about 50 Shades of Yellow…

Normally I don’t have access to farm fresh free-range eggs, I have to do with the ones from the botequim (local bar), or the sacolão (fruit & vege shop).

I had forgotten what real eggs looked like.

I had forgotten what real eggs tasted like.

.

Just take a look at the difference, it’s unbelievable.

I don’t need to explain which is which, but just look at the insipid yellow, compared with the rich orange/yellow of real eggs.

Oh, bring back the days of real food.

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This week’s CTWW is different, it’s philosophical, most unlike Small’s usual challenges.

This week, imagine what a perfect green life would look like … or perhaps a perfect green world. Write down your ideas and then see if there are any on your list which you can turn into reality.

Think big … think wild … be creative.

I would begin by turning the clock back 50 years.

• Get rid of the dairy companies, go back to farm milk.
• Get rid of battery farming, go back to free range.
• Get rid of the pesticides and herbicides, go back to real (currently called ‘organic’) farming.
• Get rid of plastic, go back to paper, but recycled.
• Get rid of corporations, go back to small business.
• Get rid of artificial foods and additives, go back to the real McCoy.
• Get rid of TV dinner-style foods, go back to the kitchen.
• Get rid of canned & frozen foods, go back to preserves in the pantry (larder).
• Get rid of microwaves, go back to real stoves and ovens.
• Get rid of supermarkets and malls, go back to the corner store and butcher.
• Get rid of video games and social networks, go back to talking and playing outside.
• Get rid of concrete jungles, go back to dirt.
• Get rid of fashions, go back to functional clothing.
• Get rid of infant formula, go back to breastfeeding.
• Get rid of Wall Street, go back to honest banking (is that an oxymoron?).
• Get rid of antidepressant medications, go back to getting on with life.
• Get rid of psychologists, go back to dealing with it.
• Get rid of BigPharma, go back to natural remedies.
• Get rid of junk food, go home and eat.

The list could go on and on

Half my list will never happen, because the corporations own the government.

But you can make a difference.

There are small things that I do to make my life better, there are other things that I would do if I was more mobile and had transport, there are things that I would dearly love to do.

How many of you have a bank account? I have one, but by necessity to transfer my modest funds from one country to another. But I don’t have a local bank account. Basically, I don’t trust banks. I get my pay in cash and keep it ‘under the mattrass’. I go and pay my bills personally, I don’t have to go to the bank to get my money.

How many of you grow something for food? I imagine many that read this type of blog do. I live on concrete, but I have a modest garden.

How many of you cook or make preserves? It is rare for me to buy pre-prepared food? How many of you preserve something for later? I currently have beetroot and pickled onions in the fridge.

How many of you have bought fast food in the last week? I haven’t bought fast food in over two years.

Fashion and models as useless as tits on a bull

How many of you buy clothing because it’s fashionable? I buy it because it’s functional.

How many of you Facebook, Pin or Tweet and spend hours doing it. I Tweet, yes, I’m a twit, but for me tweeting is automatic on my blogs, I don’t spend hours wasting my time.

How many of you shop at supermarkets or malls? I do, but only for things that I can’t walk to the store and buy. I much prefer the corner store and grocer.

I do little things, but I yearn for the days when those little things and more were normal everyday things.

I would love to see a world where the useless things like fashion were eliminated; but man is such a vain creature.

How much land is used to grow crops like cotton, how much petroleum is used to make fabrics, how much energy is used in manufacture and transport, how much time is wasted in fashion shows and the ilk, how much press and paper is dedicated to this absolutely despicable aspect of life?

My view is get these skinny, underfed, malnourished creatures off the catwalk and have them tilling the soil, doing something productive, getting their perfectly manicured hands dirty instead of poncing around the fashion world full of their own self importance. These are bludgers on society, the whole industry are leeches. There is nothing at all green about the fashion world, it is a total waste of resources.

The same could be said of many aspects of modern life, I just chose fashion as an example.

We need to become more pragmatic, we need to turn the clock back, we need to think about what we have lost in the name of ‘progress‘.

Monday Moaning

We have to stop the madness before these hit the supermarket shelves!

Because the day isn’t far off!

Monday Moaning

Why must we do it?

Why must we continually threaten the planet?

Almost everything man does in the wake of 20th century technology has a price, and that price is the destruction of our planet.

When are we finally going to wake up?

The answer is simple, NEVER!

At least not until it’s too damned late and we are the last species living on a non-productive dirt ball.

The rich have this insatiable need to get richer and to hell with the consequences; the governments have this insatiable need to conquer and dominate and to hell with the consequences.

Yesterday I read an article in The Guardian that says that “M&S, Co-op and Sainsbury’s say chickens will be fed on GM soya

As three more supermarkets drop their bans, the industry is accused of caving in to cartels and GM food giants”

The RSPB says the number of birds affected by the spill has now reached 4,000 – image: BBC News

Today I read in an article in BBC News that “Shipping chemical ‘unsafe for birds'” and it is legal under maritime law to discharge the chemical into the sea.

It is the chemical polyisobutene (PIB) that has been responsible for the sticky deaths of 4,000 seabirds on the shores of Britain.

PIB is chemical is used as a lubricant in ships’ engines, but not only, it is also used in chewing gum, cosmetics, adhesives and sealants.

We are going from bad to worse.

With the latest decision by major supermarkets you won’t be able to buy a GM Free chicken in Britain, unless you buy from a free range farmer.

If PIB is killing seabirds, what’s it doing to the fish we eat?

PIB is considered low risk and non-toxic, but the same source says limited information. In other words… We don’t really know!

Is it killing them, or simply contaminating them so they enter our food chain?

During the week also I read about ‘Super Wheat’ 15% greater yield, resistant to fungus, will be available within two years. Has this been tested for suitability for human consumption, will it ever be until it is foisted on us all in our daily bread as guinea pigs?

AH, who cares?

Monday Moaning

In some respects, I am a cynic.

I have grave doubts, no, I am almost certain that 100% of the food products you buy in supermarkets and other retail outlets are poisoned, polluted or contaminated in some form. There is nothing on a supermarket shelf that is healthy.

I would hazard a guess and say the only product on these shelves safe to eat is the blue stuff on the right, but even that is almost guaranteed to have been chlorinated/bleached.

I want you to take a hard look at this… And bear in mind that this is just drinks!

7 Beverages To Stop Consuming Today

Lately I’ve been focusing on all the foods we should stop consuming, but what about beverages which can account for up to 30 percent of our daily calorie intake? Many of us take for granted all those calorie-laden lattes, soft drinks and other sweetened beverages, however the real problem is not related to calories, but something much worse.

Here are 7 beverages you should avoid consuming at any time, for your health and your waist line:

1. Soft Drinks (soda, pop, carbonated beverages, fizzy drinks, etc.)

There isn’t enough bad things to say about soft drinks of any kind. Soft drinks account for more than a quarter of all drinks consumed in the United States. That works out to at least one 12-ounce can per day for every man, woman and child. They are estimated to be at least one-third of the problem related to child obesity. Carbonated soda pop provides more added sugar in a typical 2-year-old toddler’s diet than cookies, candies and ice cream combined.

Many sodas and diet soft drinks approach the pH level of battery acid in terms of corrosiveness and erosion of tooth enamel.

Besides the fact that diet soda causes dehydration, weight gain, mineral depletion, diabetes and caffeine addiction, research shows they’re also responsible for an increased risk of vascular events such as stroke, heart attack, and vascular death.

Artificially sweetened soft drinks are marketed as healthier alternatives to sugar-sweetened beverages, due to their lack of calories. However, past research has shown very serious long-term health consequences due to highly toxic additives and artificial sweeteners such as sodium benzoate, aspartame, acesulfame potassium, sucralose and high-fructose corn syrup.

Men who drink just one 300ml can of soda per day are much more likely to require treatment for a serious form of cancer than those who never consumed the drink. One soda a day can raise aggressive cancer risk by 40 percent.

One study of more than 66,000 women found those who drank artificially sweetened drinks were more 60 percent more likely to develop diabetes than those who indulged in regular versions of the same beverage.

Another recent study published in the journal Respirology revealed that soft drink consumption is associated with lung and breathing disorders including asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease

Reblogged from: PreventDisease.com

Now, do you want to read No. 2 Tap water?

Then there’s pasteurised milk, sweetners, fruit juice, sports drinks and speciality coffee.

Just in liquids the average poison has been poisoned, now add foodstuffs.

It’s scary!

Make you Fink Good this Friday

If you buy your beef from big corporate supermarkets like Tesco, the chances are you helping to destroy the Amazon rainforest.

Tesco supplier accused of contributing to Amazon rainforest destruction

Greenpeace says meat products supplied by Brazilian firm JBS come from ranches in illegally deforested lands

Cattle at an illegal settlement in northern Brazil: such ranches are the leading source of rainforest destruction in the Amazon. Photograph: Antonio Scorza/AFP/Getty Images

British consumers are unwittingly contributing to the devastation of the Amazon rainforest by buying meat products from Tesco, according to Greenpeace.

The environmental group says in a report that canned beef from the supermarket chain has been found to contain meat from ranches that have been carved out of the lands of indigenous peoples, and farms the Brazilian government believes have been sited in illegally deforested lands.

The allegations stem from an 18-month investigation carried out by Greenpeace into the practices of JBS, a big Brazilian supplier of meat and cattle byproducts. The campaigning group claims it unearthed evidence of serious violations of the company’s own ethical code, and those of companies it supplies, including Tesco.

Read more

This has been known since this June 2009 article:

Supermarket suppliers ‘helping destroy Amazon rainforest’

• Meat companies sued over Amazon deforestation
• Accused firms supplying Tesco, Asda and M&S

Brazilian authorities investigating illegal deforestation have accused the suppliers of several UK supermarkets of selling meat linked to massive destruction of the Amazon rainforest. Brazilian firms that supply Tesco, Asda and Marks & Spencer are among dozens of companies named by prosecutors, who are seeking hundreds of millions of pounds in compensation.

Read more

So it’s not new news.

This week in Brazil steps were taken by the Brazilian Association of Supermarkets to help rectify the domestic use of such meat…

Brazil supermarkets ‘to avoid Amazon meat’

Farmers use fire to clear land for cattle, destroying huge swathes of rainforest in the Amazon region.

The main group representing supermarkets in Brazil says it will no longer sell meat from cattle raised in the rainforest.

The Brazilian Association of Supermarkets, which has 2,800 members, hopes the deal will cut down on the illegal use of rainforest for pasture.

Deforestation in the Amazon has slowed over the past years but invasion of public land continues to be a problem.

Huge swathes have been turned into land for pasture and soy plantations.

The Brazilian Association of Supermarkets (Abras) signed the agreement with the Federal Public Prosecutor’s office in the capital, Brasilia.

‘More transparent’

Public Prosecutor Daniel Cesar Azeredo Avelino said consumers would benefit from the deal.

“The agreement foresees a series of specific actions to inform the consumer about the origin of the meat both through the internet and at the supermarkets,” he said.

Mr Avelino said a more transparent labelling system would also make it easier for consumers to avoid buying meat from the Amazon and make it harder for shops to sell items from producers who flouted the law.

He said he would now work towards reaching a similar deal with smaller shops.

Under the deal, supermarkets have promised to reject meat from areas of the Amazon where illegal activities take place, such as illegal logging and invasion of public land, Mr Avelino said.

There is currently no deadline for the implementation of the measures, but Mr Avelino said they would be adopted “soon”.

According to the pressure group Greenpeace, expansion of the cattle industry in the Amazon is the single biggest cause of deforestation in the region.

If Brazilians can take appropriate measures, the big corporate supermarkets across the globe can do the same.

And, you, the consumer, can also play your part and demand to know the origin of your beef.

Do this, and you will be doing your part.

 

 

Monday Moaning

Reports that America, England and Europe waste about 50% of their food from the farm to the mouth.

Produce is not perfect or ripening correctly or not the right shape or not the right colour, so it is left to rot on the farm. Transport methods damaging produce on the way to market. Storage in shops and supermarkets. Waste in preparing the food in the kitchen. Throwing out prepared food at home when there is too much; and finally, simply buying too much and it ends up on the compost or rubbish cans.

UK supermarkets reject ‘wasted food’ report claims

The report said half the food bought in Europe and the US ended up in the bin

Britain’s biggest supermarkets have been defending their practices after a report suggested that up to half of the world’s food is thrown away.

The Institution of Mechanical Engineers said the waste was being caused by poor storage, strict sell-by dates, bulk offers and consumer fussiness.

The British Retail Consortium said supermarkets have “adopted a range of approaches” to combat waste.

They also lobbied the EU to relax laws stopping the sale of misshaped produce.

According to the report – Global Food; Waste Not, Want Not – from the UK-based institution, as much as half of the world’s food, amounting to two billion tonnes worth, is wasted.

Its study claims that up to 30% of vegetables in the UK were not harvested because of their physical appearance.

‘Waste of resources’

The report said that between 30% and 50% of the four billion tonnes of food produced around the world each year went to waste.

It suggested that half the food bought in Europe and the US was thrown away.

Dr Tim Fox, head of energy and environment at the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, said: “The amount of food wasted and lost around the world is staggering. This is food that could be used to feed the world’s growing population – as well as those in hunger today.

“It is also an unnecessary waste of the land, water and energy resources that were used in the production, processing and distribution of this food.

“The reasons for this situation range from poor engineering and agricultural practices, inadequate transport and storage infrastructure through to supermarkets demanding cosmetically perfect foodstuffs and encouraging consumers to overbuy through buy-one-get-one-free offers.”

Read more

The human race really needs to get its act together. Wasting 50% of the world’s produce is a hideous example of our civilisation.

The you can add to that waste when food is discarded because it has reached its validity date.

We have a large percentage of the world crying out for food, and we just throw it away.

There are water shortages throughout the world, and we waste it growing produce that will never be consumed.

Humanity really needs to wake up its ideas and put our feet back on the ground. We have been namby-pambied for too long when we won’t eat fruit or vege because it is the wrong shape or colour.

This has to stop!

There is nothing wrong with this tomato!

It still tastes like a tomato!

There is no defence for waste!

Make you Fink on Friday

It appears as though we are just not getting the message.

Plastic bag use ‘up for second year running’

Waste plastic bags at a recycling plant in South Glamorgan, Wales. Photograph: The Photolibrary Wales/Alamy

UK supermarkets handed out 8bn single-use plastic bags last year, up 5.4% on 2010, say government figures

The number of single-use plastic bags handed out to shoppers by UK supermarkets has risen for the second year running, new figures from the government’s waste reduction body Wrap have revealed. The figures will be a huge disappointment to the government, which backed a voluntary scheme to cut the use if throwaway bags.

A total of 8bn “thin-gauge” bags were issued in the UK in 2011 – a 5.4% rise on the 7.6bn in 2010 – and with every shopper now using an average of almost 11 a month.

It is the second year in a row the number of throwaway plastic bags has risen, although their use has fallen by more than a third (35%) since 2006, when 12.2bn bags were handed out. Retailers have blamed the recession, saying families have changed their shopping habits and are doing more smaller shops every week – often using public transport.

Source: The Guardian Read more

Opinion:

The figures quoted are for the United Kingdom, but I have no doubts that the trend worldwide would be rather similar.

We just don’t appear to be getting the message.

Figures fell initially, but complacency has obviously raised it’s ugly head and the last two years both show an increase, and not small increases, 5.4% must be considered major.

“Your Dad is training to be Carmen Miranda?” – “No, he’s come from the supermarket without bags!”

São Paulo here in Brazil recently brought in measures to ban them from all retail outlets, but within two weeks supermarkets brought them back citing a dramatic fall off in business; customers were saying simply, “No bags, put the stuff back on the shelves!” and walking out leaving their purchases on the checkout and in trolleys (shopping carts, for our American cousins).

Rio de Janeiro has similar plans afoot.At the moment it is not law here in Rio.

Preparing for the event, my own supermarket (not mine, but where I shop) has begun to offer reusable bags. Last night as I was doing my monthly stock up, I noticed them. not because they were just hanging there at the checkout, but because one of the checkout girls was explaining them to a customer as an alternative; he brought and used one saving about ten plastic bags going by the number of purchases he had.

Brazilians buy up big at the beginning of the month

I asked for and got boxes. I can because I use a frete (delivery), but many people can’t because they walk distances or use buses and a bag is essential. Also, here in Brazil we are hampered by the monthly salary, not that it’s much (this month my pay slip was papel de cebola – onion paper, enough to make you cry). Because people are paid monthly, they shop at the beginning of the month; and it’s a big shop, because at the end of the month, they are broke with no money to buy more. So they have to buy big when they can, and they bring more than one person so they can carry their produce home, maybe a kilometer, or two (mile+). For them bags are essential, and the reusable bag becomes more attractive as they are easier to carry than hands clutching up to ten bags (I know, I have done this, it’s murder on the fingers).

It’s easier to do this….

…than this!

Brazilians are also big fans of the trundler, which makes the option less attractive…

It’s harder to fit reusable bags in trundlers

Just some thoughts here about the situation in Brazil. Does your location present similar or particular problems?