Solid Waste Working Group - GTRS
Council of Federal APA Serra da Mantiqueira - CONAPAM
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Introducing decentralized composting in Delfim Moreira, MG
Demonstration and delivery of the first composters in the pilot-neighborhood

On June 2, 2016 two demonstration workshops were held in the Villa Rica neighborhood, showing to the most interested residents how to produce fertilizer from their kitchen and back yards vegetable waste, as planned by the project in partnership with the CONAPAM's Solid Waste Working Group.

In the pilot-visitation to the neighborhood, on May 6, the interest of several residents in composting their waste was verified.

The first workshop was held at 10:30 am, in the highest part of the neighborhood, with the participation of Juliane Coura, Municipal Secretary of Agriculture and Environment of Delfim Moreira, Máira Maia, environmental analyst at Federal APA of Mantiqueira, and Joaquim Moura, volunteer member of the Solid Waste Working Group of the APA of Mantiqueira Advisory Council.

At the time, in addition to residents (adults and children), 15 students of environmental management at Roge Foundation (Delfim Moreira) were present, who actively participated in the activity, including talking to residents, visiting homes and installing composters.


For the workshop in the morning, a small vacant lot - which could be better used by the community - was prepared by municipality's workers.
Above right and below, Joaquim explains the reasons to compost domestic organic waste and how to do it.


After the workshop, five composters were given to interested residents, and four for students that will install them in their homes.
The Reduzo Lixo home composting system presented to the Delfim Moreira community it is the same already used successfully in Visconde de Mauá region, Resende, also included in the APA of Mantiqueira.


The composters are made with welded wire mesh, measuring 1m high and 1.8m in circumference each one.

They are assigned on loan to residents through a "loan term". After 30 days, there will be another visit to check the interest of the resident to continue composting.

If not, the composteiro will go to another resident.

To involve all families in the practice, the ideal is to offer community composting minicenters as an option.

However, this initiative will only be feasible when the community becomes more used to the idea of ​​turning their waste into resources - including greater involvement of children and young people, through activities in the schools where they study.
At 14:30 the second workshop was carried out in the lower part of the neighborhood. Five residents were present, who were introduced to the benefits of composting. After, three composters were installed in local homes and other two were delivered to other families.




Fourteen composters were distributed and about twenty-five people attended the demonstration workshops.
The most interested residents in the practice of composting were those people who already planted in their yards.


On the left, a more conventional garden, with beds for each vegetable. To the right, a spontaneous "agroforestry system - AFS", mixing vegetables (parsley), edible roots (yams) and fruit trees (orange and tangerine).
Conclusion
The practice of home composting was finally introduced in the pilot neighborhood of Delfim Moreira.
Now it's time to streamline this practice in the neighborhood, improve the methodology and community communication, and plan their replication in the next neighborhoods.

The higher cost of the project is represented by the purchase of screen rolls, R$ 460 each, allowing the preparation of 14 composters (R$ 32 each).
Resources for printing educational newsletters and flyers would also be important.

The coordination of the project is studying a way to get support or sponsorship to popularize the practice of composting in Delfim Moreira and other 29 municipalities included in APA of Mantiqueira.