One such twinkle came a few days ago, when Buenos Aires enacted a ban on plastic drinking straws; restaurants and bars are now prohibited from providing patrons with these single-use atrocities unless they ask for them. And they'll be banned outright in six months. My rioplatense wife, born in the land of the metal and reusable bombilla (which predates plastic straws probably by centuries), has long held that the anglo-saxon delight for plastic straws is just silly.
Another tiny local glimmer in the dark appeared around the corner from our house a week or so ago: a station for Ecobicis, with a bank of bicycles which form part of the metropolitan public transport system and, to my surprise, are free! Once you've installed the app, you can just rock up to a station, unlock a bike, ride it, and return it to any other station.
Imagine that! A city that actively encourages its residents out of their cars by providing free bicycles all over the place!
Take that, supposedly-clean-green New Zealand, with your bendy straws and your market-driven, totally-not-free Lime scooters dragging lazy kiwis around the place until they just drop them wherever.
Dark days.
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