Abstract
The present research has focused on a contribution to the improvement of solid waste management in a waste collectors’ cooperative located in Brazil (Marcos Moura district, Santa Rita, Paraiba State) through a technical and organizational up-grading. Collection, processing and final disposal of wastes still represent a problem in some regions of Brazil. The proposed strategy foresaw the analysis of the local situation, the evaluation of the cooperative efficiency rate and then the introduction of technical and operational improvements to the service. Besides the technical activity, a social inclusion program was developed in order to include local scavengers (called Catadores) and to improve the social and economic conditions of populations involved in the process. The project also increased their environmental awareness. The workgroup is still monitoring the obtained results in order to check for the achievement of foreseen targets, to plan further improvements and to replicate this experience in other Brazilian areas.
Highlights
One of the most debated problems of the international scientific community that works on waste management is the possibility for offering suitable technical solutions to developing and emerging countries [1,2].The rapid economic development is not always followed by a quick social growth
The cooperative COREMM occupies an area of 1200 square meters, including a warehouse and all the other areas needed for waste handling, separation and processing, plus service rooms
The proposed actions, well integrated into a wider framework of social inclusion and recovery of the poorest groups of local population, are aimed at a specific environmental target, that is the improvement of waste collection in a poor area of Santa Rita, Brazil
Summary
One of the most debated problems of the international scientific community that works on waste management is the possibility for offering suitable technical solutions to developing and emerging countries [1,2].The rapid economic development is not always followed by a quick social growth. One of the most debated problems of the international scientific community that works on waste management is the possibility for offering suitable technical solutions to developing and emerging countries [1,2]. One of the problems that may arise from this imbalance is that, because of a growing quantity of waste to be properly disposed, there is a lack of feasible technical solutions really suitable at local levels [3]. A diffused activity in developing countries witnessing the strong social imbalance is the presence of scavengers that collect, among the waste, the most valuable fractions in order to re-sell them and gain a little income [4,5,6]. The so called Catadores (lit.: “pickers”: workers who collect, sort and sell recyclable materials such as paper, cardboard, plastic, glass and ferrous or non-ferrous metals and other reclaimed materials—Brazilian Classification of occupations) [7], search in the waste dumps (controlled or not) settled around the cities and towns to recover valuable waste
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