Mexico Verde

If you're like me you might have assumed that Mexico City, with its layer of brown smog and out of control urban sprawl, must not have much of an environmental movement. But you might be surprised. I have been.

Ok, it's true that there really is a layer of brown smog over the city a lot of days, and that the urban sprawl is definitely out of control, imparable as they say here. And it is true that cars appear to be a status symbol here, with most middle and upper class families owning at least one per person. And, yes, there's far too much trash on the streets and far too few clean water sources. But, there is also clear evidence of a green movement making its impact as well.

A few examples:

• A quick search online for green markets in Mexico brought up The Green Corner, an organic market and cafe not far from where we'll be living, that boasts the first solar tiled roof in Mexico City and a philosophy of providing organic food at prices affordable to all incomes (of course its stores do seem to be located mostly in the wealthier areas of the city).
  
• Just the other day I happened upon a fair trade coffee shop, La Selva Cafe, that distributes coffee from an indigenous cooperative in Chiapas, in a nondescript neighborhood in the South of the city. They have a slew of cafes around Mexico City, a few more around the country, and even one in Spain and one in the U.S. (Atlanta, GA, of all places).
  
• The city government has a campaign right now encouraging people to take part in the organized recycling program, which includes separating your trash into "organico" (leftover food waste) and "inorganico" (paper, glass, and metal). Organico material gets converted into fertilizer for plants, and inorganic gets recycled into other materials. To encourage participation, the government has posted signs along the streets in some neighborhoods and created a (somewhat bizarre) comic strip that's posted in the subways.
  

But it's not the formal efforts to introduce more green practices and services into the city that really impresses me. Organic food is in these days, if you can afford it, and chilangos know better than anyone the environmental and health impacts of 20 million people crammed into one city. Actually, it's the innate Mexican capacity for informal recycling that we could learn from.

It's the man pushing a cart down the sidewalk yelling, "Hierro viejo se venden!" - Old iron for sale!, his wooden cart filled with old rusted iron bits and pieces from who knows what that others will buy and use for...well, something. It's the leftover cup of greasy juice from chile rellenos that Alberto tells me not to throw away because his mom will use it for the salsa in tomorrow night's meal. It's the thrown away wire and aluminum cans gathered from the street, formed into delicate mobiles, and sold to tourists. And it's the pair of shoes resoled and repaired again and again and again until the leather finally collapses and is used for making a wallet. Mexicans are simply geniuses at recycling! And it seems to be not only a matter of getting every bit you can out of limited resources, but also a cultural capacity to work with what you have. Something we in the North often seem unable, or at least unhappy, to do.

Of course Mexico Ciy has a long way to go before it becomes an eco-friendly city. A few fun DF facts:

• Population - Continues to be debated but estimates range between 17.5 million and 26 million (depends partly on where you draw the city limits)
• Population density - 5,600 people per square kilometer (no wonder I'm constantly bumping into people!)
  
• Number of registered cars and buses in the city: 3 million (this does not include significant numbers of unregistered cars)
  
• Daily driving trips within the city: 30 million
• Water consumed per day: 3.5 million cubic meters (twice the level of many industrialized countries!)
• Size of Chapultepec Park (largest green area in the city): 2,100 acres

Adelante Mexico Verde!