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.
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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). |
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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.. |
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Key considerations
and next steps
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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..
- 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.
- 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".".
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