E A FESTA CONTINUA | Mariana Pinho | TEDxRio Salon
A self-taught artist, inspired by her family's history in labor justice and artistry, leads the "Sustain Carnival" project to combat massive textile waste from Rio's carnival by reusing thousands of costumes. The core message is that cultural celebration does not require environmental destruction, proposing a circular economy approach that links art, social progress, and sustainability through cross-cultural exchange. The project demonstrates this success by diverting 66 tons of waste in Rio and facilitating reuse in London's Notting Hill carnival.
## Speakers & Context
- An unnamed self-taught woman (the speaker) who is 1.5 m tall and a single mother.
- Has family roots connected to building Brasília and dedication to labor justice, stemming from an environment where creating with available materials was normal.
- Grew up in a large studio environment involving mixing techniques and materials, and constructing items like a balloon bag or silver tape skirt.
- Has experience in dance, costume design, and artistic direction across Brazil, the UK, and Europe for over 20 years.
- Initially observed waste management issues inside a samba school's warehouse in Rio, which she viewed as instinct rather than sustainability.
- Focused intense research during the pandemic to understand the life cycle of synthetic materials.
## Theses & Positions
- Carnival celebrations, while vital, generate massive, decomposable waste that endangers future generations.
- The solution lies in establishing a model of circularity where costumes are viewed not as trash, but as assets, tools, and historical records.
- Sustainability must be framed around three pillars: environmental, economic, and social, demonstrating that celebration itself is not the problem.
- The problem is *starting from scratch*; the solution is building from what already exists.
- The artistic and cultural value of the celebration (samba, Rio de Janeiro) must be preserved alongside ecological responsibility.
## Concepts & Definitions
- **Circular Economy:** The model used for the project, demonstrated by reintroducing costumes through donation, sale, rental, and new product creation.
- **Sustain Carnival:** The project name initiated to manage textile waste from Carnival.
- **Gold Series and Special Groups (Samba Schools):** The groups whose costumes are major waste producers.
- **Decomposition Process:** The process of waste decomposition occurring in landfills, which continues long after the event.
## Mechanisms & Processes
- **Waste Collection:** Initially, the speaker instinctually collected waste from a samba school warehouse; later, this became a formalized process.
- **Waste Removal:** During the post-pandemic period, the project systematically removed costumes in truckloads (e.g., initially 3 tons of food waste, followed by 23 tons of costumes).
- **Waste Diversion:** Establishing systems to divert discarded costumes from the landfill.
- **Reintegration:** Reintroducing the collected materials into economic cycles through donation, sale, rental, and exporting.
- **Cross-Cultural Transfer:** Transporting the model of circularity from Rio to educational initiatives and festivals in France and the UK.
## Timeline & Sequence
- **1970s:** Grandmother, Deia, presided over a Federal Council for the Regulation of Artists; critique of labor rights in art.
- **Pre-project period:** Worked in a samba school warehouse, noting the waste issue intuitively.
- **Later period (pre-pandemic):** Returned to work at SUPCA as a translator, noticing the consistent waste problem at the Sambadrome (thousands leaving every 90 minutes).
- **Pandemic/Post-Pandemic:** Intensified research; organized the first large-scale collection efforts.
- **Present:** Located in an office in the port area of Rio de Janeiro; has already removed 66 tons of waste.
- **Cross-Atlantic Extension:** Participated in educational initiatives in France and the United Kingdom.
## Named Entities
- **Brasília** — City where the speaker’s family helped build.
- **SUPCA** — Location where the speaker later worked as a translator for a publication.
- **Notting Hill carnival** — Carnival location in London where materials were reused.
- **Afro Dendation group** — Group in London that reused collected materials for three consecutive years.
- **Rio de Janeiro** — Location of the project headquarters and primary action site.
- **Cabo Frio** — Location where initial large-scale food waste collection occurred.
## Numbers & Data
- Speaker’s height: **1.5 m**.
- Year Grandmother was active in regulation: **1970s**.
- Average number of costumes produced annually by Gold Series/Special Groups: **over 100,000**.
- Percentage of costumes already reused by organizations: **more than 90%**.
- Initial waste removal tonnage (food): **3 tons**.
- Second costuming removal tonnage: **23 tons**.
- Total waste removed to date (in Rio): **66 tons**.
- Percentage of waste re-introduced into circular economy: **20 tons**.
- Impact figure: For every kilogram of costumes, there is an impact of **47.2 kg of CO2 equivalent**.
- CO2 impact equivalent: **almost 1000 km driven by a car**.
## Examples & Cases
- **Family background:** Growing up where creating with available materials was the norm.
- **Samba School Waste:** The logistical problem of thousands of people leaving the Sambadrome, resulting in thousands heading to the compactor truck/landfill.
- **Costume Overload:** The initial realization upon seeing "a sentence in a PDF" turn into a "mountain of fantasies, and it was all too big, too bulky, too heavy, too real."
- **London Reuse:** The Afro Dendation group in London achieving first place at Notting Hill carnival using materials from the project’s collection.
## Tools, Tech & Products
- **Suitcase:** Used nightly to collect and transport materials.
- **Truckload:** Used to remove both food waste and costumes.
- **Costumes:** The central object—described as "fantasy"—made of synthetic fabrics.
## References Cited
- No external books, papers, or specific non-speaker people/organizations cited as sources of information (only professional collaborations/partnerships).
## Trade-offs & Alternatives
- **Waste Generation vs. Reusability:** The massive output of costumes versus the fact that >90% are reusable.
- **Sustainability:** The shift from viewing waste as a problem solved by "sustainability" (a concept) to implementing a practical circular model.
- **Solution to starting from scratch:** The proposal to build from "what already exists."
## Counterarguments & Caveats
- The initial, less scientific understanding of the waste problem (it was an "instinct").
- The inherent problem of excessive consumption justified by the "content of the item."
## Methodology
- Research and consulting focused on establishing the relationship between synthetic materials and their full life cycle.
- Partnerships and cooperation agreements established to legitimize the removal and management of materials.
- Project execution combines art conservation, waste management logistics, and educational outreach.
## Conclusions & Recommendations
- The goal is to mitigate the impact of textile waste from excess consumption.
- Recommendation is adopting a perspective that integrates the environmental, economic, and social pillars of sustainability.
- The overall message is celebrating life through cultural longevity: *long live samba, long live its pillars, long live the women, long live Rio de Janeiro, because life is a party.*
## Implications & Consequences
- If consumption continues unchecked, the planet risks suffocating from plastic waste.
- The cost of waste has a measurable carbon impact: 47.2 kg of $\text{CO}_2$ equivalent per kilogram of costume.
- Successful reuse demonstrates that circularity is a "transferable" concept across international boundaries.
## Verbatim Moments
- *"I am a 1.5 m tall woman, a single mother, and self-taught."*
- *"How can a clown have the same rights as a doctor?"*
- *"creating with what you had was the norm."*
- *"every 90 minutes, thousands of people will be leaving the Sambadrome at the same time."*
- *"our great-grandchildren will be born and the fantasy will still be there, decomposing."*
- *"it's all too big, too bulky, too heavy, too real to turn back."*
- *"What really saved me was the people of Carnival, our partners, collaborators, my godparents, mentors, people who understood even before I finished."*
- *"demonstrating that circularity is not local, it is transferable, it creates, acts and transforms by crossing these bridges."*
- *"The problem is starting from scratch."*
- *"long live samba, long live its pillars, long live the women, long live Rio de Janeiro, because life is a party."*