2016-11-01
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On September 29, the Ministry of the Environment (Ministério do Meio Ambiente – MMA) organised the “Innovative Tools for Dissemination of Solid Waste Management Solutions” workshop in Brasília. As part of the event’s first stage, consultants presented studies on European and Brazilian initiatives in the field. This was followed by a discussion with participants, MMA staff and personnel and professionals engaged in solid waste management activities aimed at identifying the alternatives for implementing successful European practices in Brazil.
The MMA’s actions is supported by incentives from the EU-Brazil Sector Dialogues Support Facility, an initiative coordinated by the Ministry of Planning, Development and Management (Ministério do Planejamento, Desenvolvimento e Gestão – MP) and the European Delegation in Brazil (DELBRA).
At the workshop’s opening session, Michel Mouchiroud, DELBRA representative, remarked that for the EU appropriate treatment of solid waste is a critical issue. “In Europe, there is awareness of the importance of recycling. We have important initiatives to share,” he underscored. Giovana Veloso, Substitute National Director of the Sector Dialogues Support Service, said the issue is a global challenge. “Events like this strengthen international efforts to identify solutions for solid waste”, she observed. Also participating in the opening session was Zilda Veloso, Urban Environmental Director at the MMA.
Will Sandes de Melo, an Environmental Analyst at the MMA, reported that the studies prepared by consultants and the Brazilian mission to Europe specified the areas requiring improvement in Brazilian initiatives. “We found that the dissemination of information on solid waste must be stepped up to stimulate integration with the academic community and foster additional research on the topic and to promote funding for the development of new technologies, beyond just management and infrastructure activities”, stated Mr Melo.
Mission to Europe
In September, two Environmental Analysts of the Department of Urban Environment at the MMA, Will Sandes de Melo and Thyego Pery Monteiro de Lima, took part in a mission to Europe to explore successful initiatives in solid waste management.
At the University of Wageningen, Netherlands, the MMA representatives toured the EU Fusions Project, an initiative designed to combat food waste. “The university serves as a management body for the effort, which is backed by the European Commission through public calls aimed at research in innovation. The project includes 70 partners in Europe and endeavours to standardize concepts on what food waste is, how to compute food waste and how to reduce food waste,” explains Will Melo. The research studies conducted through the initiative led to the establishment of a privately funded plant that uses food products near expiry to produce new goods.
The mission included a visit to the Ile-de-France Regional Waste Management Observatory (Observatoire Régional des Déchets d'Île-de-France – ORDIF), located in Pantin, in the vicinity of Paris. The not-for-profit organisation, composed of government institutions, industrial firms, reverse logistics system managers and solid waste operators, is devoted to overseeing the application of public policies, providing guidance to partners and compiling and disseminating information and indicators on solid waste management in the region. “We selected ORDIF because it is an R4R organisational leader, a project launched to standardize terminology between countries and regions and enable more precise comparative analyses of solid waste management and recycling performance”, noted Will Melo.
In addition, the MMA analysts visited Boras, Sweden, where they toured the SP Technical Research Institute of Sweden, an institution with primary responsibility for the Wastecosmart, a European Commission funded project the from 2013 to 2016. According to Will Melo, the objective of the project was to strengthen the capacity for regional innovations to enhance the effectiveness of resources and integrated waste management through cooperation, investigation and technological development. The analysts also visited a waste treatment plant that employs anaerobic digestion and energy recovery technologies and a leading environmental education centre, Navet Science Centre, staffed with a team of full-time educators, engineers, and architects dedicated to the development of environmental activities.
“The mission provided a valuable opportunity for exchanges at a dynamic and fast pace. We made contacts with highly qualified and experienced technicians. Our initial objective was to expand our knowledge of selected initiatives, but the mission in fact offered much more. Issues such as the organisational structure of institutions and the planning and execution of projects are equally relevant, and understanding these processes could contribute to future actions and projects with the MMA’s participation”, concluded Mr Melo.
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