Usinas de triagem e compostagem: valoração de resíduos e de pessoas - um estudo sobre a operação e os funcionários de unidades de Minas Gerais

Abstract

Popularized in Brazil in the 1990s, the Sorting and Composting Plants or UTCs have been considered an option for the proper disposal of urban solid waste, especially in small towns. The use of these units advocates the recovery of waste, with reusing of recyclables and composting of organics, reducing the volume of buried waste and environmental pollution. However, many UTCs have not shown the expected performance, and have neglected the human factor, by not favoring their workers. The objective of this research was to conduct a critical analysis of the UTCs evaluating structural and operational data collected in the field and from the workers of 22 units visited in Minas Gerais State, Brazil and to make proposals for their improvement. Also as a subsidy to the propositions, we analyzed the technologies adopted for sorting and composting in the Barcelonas Metropolitan City Waste Management Program - PMGRM and the opinions from workers in the Spanish units. To check the conditions of the UTCs, we applied the Composting Plants Quality Index or IQC, used by CETESB. As the IQC is designed for another reality, different from Minas Gerais State, it was created the UTC Evaluation Form, which originated the UTC Operational Performance Indicator or IDUTC, using the Delphi method as basis, the IQC parameters and experience on tracking Minas Gerais units, were also applied. The stage of the study in Spain consisted in surveying data about Barcelonas Metropolitan City Waste Management Program and visiting ten different waste treatment facilities, with the completion of five interviews. After the initial release, it was necessary to reset the indicators, adapting the framework ranges. The new parameters were considered too strict for the UTC Evaluation Form, but have represented well the reality for the IDUTC. About the parameters collected in the visited UTCs, it was not possible to identify trends and / or convergences that would create a common identity between the units, preventing the indication of recommended values for future projects. Among the improvement suggestions to the UTCs made by their employees, it is worth to highlight the implementing of selective gathering in towns and the carrying out of educational work with the population. Given all the results obtained in the present study and proposed possible improvements to be made it is considered that the UTCs, as they are currently designed, can play the role for which they were designed, but the vast majority of them presents different problems and operational inadequacies. As a greater proposal, we have the implementation of an effective selective gathering, which already would solve many of the problems presented by these units.