Grupo de Trabalho de Resíduos Sólidos - GTRS
Conselho da APA Federal da Serra da Mantiqueira - CONAPAM

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Meeting in Delfim Moreira
January 28, 2016

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The purpose of the meeting was to prepare a development plan for the introduction of the practice of decentralized composting in urban and periurban areas of ​​the municipality.

Delfim Moreira was one of the nine municipalities that have accepted the proposal of the Federal APA of Mantiqueira sent in April 2014 to 30 municipalities in the region by offering them a partnership in developing practical and effective solutions to reduce the volume of solid waste sent to local landfills, with special focus on the recycling of organic waste by composting..

Since then, some pilot initiatives have been implemented in Visconde de Mauá, a region of Resende RJ municipality - which had also joined the partnership proposal with the APA.

From the results achieved in Visconde de Mauá, the Department of Agriculture and Environment of the Municipality of Delfim Moreira decided to promote urban and periurban composting in order to - including - produce organic fertilizer for planting seedlings in the existing springs in its territory. More information on this initiative in Delfim Moreira is available here.

Representatives from the other municipalities-partners were invited, and also from six others that are partners of Delfim in a consortium - CIMASAS - formed around a landfill in common, installed in the municipality of Itajubá MG.

At the previous day, torrential rain disrupted traffic on roads linking these towns of the Mantiqueira to Delfim Moreira, preventing the arrival of many stakeholders who had confirmed their presence.

But were there people more closely linked to the project, as the Secretary of Agriculture and Environment, Juliane Coura, the mayor, Fernando Coura, and the Head of Federal APA of Mantiqueira, Paulo Oliveira, as well as representatives, technicians and trainees from the SAA, the APA, the Company of Rural Extension EMATER-MG, the Environment Agency of Resende - AMAR, and the Environment Secretary municipality of Santa Rita de Sapucai. 
The meeting was initiated by Juliane, who explained the reasons that led her to invite us to exchange ideas about how to organize a composting project in the municipality.
Then Celia Santos, from AMAR / Resende, presented its local "Programa de Gestão Integrada de Resíduos Sólidos", which recently received an award for "Best Practices" in the sustainable management of waste conferred by the partnership "Sustainable road" between the CCR (concessionaire of the Via Dutra / Rio-São Paulo) and AGEVAP (Paraíba do Sul River Valley Agency).


After, Joaquim Moura, a GTRS volunteer who collaborates in the pilot project in Visconde de Mauá, presented an overview of decentralized urban composting, its advantages and some examples of implemented municipal projects in New York, São Paulo, Florianopolis and Resende.
Mariá Resende, the ROGE student and intern at SAA Foundation, presented the research that she made on the Internet, bringing together several examples of composters and systems that show the versatility of the process and its adaptation to any situation.

After the coffee break, Juliane presented the pre-project and a draft questionnaire, priorities to enable the progressive and agile
introduction of the practice in the municipality.
The participants could then 
participate well objectively, comparing the options for the choice of the pilot neighborhood, listing the forms of communication with the community, discussing the integration of composting practices (individual / family and community) and the minimal support the City Hall must provide to the project's success..



Key considerations and next steps
  1. Juliane will decide what will be the pilot district between two options.
    However, although it is important to focus especially on one particular neighborhood, nothing prevents the practice to be disseminated throughout the city, even to mobilize potential supporters and unpredictable volunteers - who are everywhere.

  2. Juliane will contact the Delfim's Department of Health to schedule a meeting with the Health Care Agents team operating in the pilot neighborhood and others, and who know every house, families, etc., to introduce them to the project, including the practical way, showing how to compost organic waste, the benefits for health and environment; It is important that this training also takes place in February, to begin the visits to homes and local businesses in March.
    Communiy leaders and volunteers will also be invited to attend this meeting-workshop.
    It may also be useful to call technicians, managers and employees of urban sanitation services in the city.

  3. Juliane will publish two texts in the Delfim's City Hall website: (1) an account of the meeting; and (2) an invitation to those interested in participating as volunteers in the project.

  4. These workers and volunteers will be oriented to show - on the occasion of visits to the concerned residents and business - a publication with informative photos on proper waste management (such as the "picture book" and "motivating brochure" used in Visconde de Mauá), and apply the questionnaire that will give us an insight into the local situation at the beginning of the project and identify people interested in participating in the project, doing the household or community composting.

  5. GTRS members are invited to suggest improvements in the questionnaire, and Maira Maia, from the APA technical team, will assist in this process of adjusting questions according to the most needed information.

  6. Juliane - always with the help of the intern Mariá Resende and GTRS - will plan the visits in the pilot neighborhood in March, and predict the minimum support other municipal secretariats (Education, Services etc.) that will be needed to enable the process (involvement of students and youth, distribution, when necessary, of dry materials - leaves, prunings, grass clippings, etc. - which are essential for safe composting, and planning the (partial time) activity of a city employee (from the street cleaning service) who will provide support to the practitioners..

  7. Technical and volunteers linked to APA will develop, in partnership with Delfim Moreira's SAA, some teaching materials, informative photos etc., for the meeting-workshop in February.

  8. The problem of disposal of organic waste (and others) generated in the rural area of the municipality was raised at the meeting, and may be best discussed from the text " Considerações iniciais sobre resíduos rurais (todos)".

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After the meeting, the volunteer Joaquim Moura, member of GTRS, received from the hands of Maira Maia, a homage-diploma conferred by the Federal APA of Mantiqueira for his "dedication and commitment to the preservation of the Mantiqueira".".