This chapter will not give a detailed manual of how to deal with all questions about waste. It will rather give hints, which can help reduce environmental problems, concerning the creation and the management of waste in the immediate surrounding of Sitio Joaninha.

It is clear, that before one thinks about managing waste, one has to think about the avoidance of waste. Packaging is one of the key factors in this concern. The administration of Diadema and San Bernardo do Campo have to develop a political will to help protecting the environment and influence the commerce to respond with environmentally friendly packaging. The use of PET bottles and aluminium cans, can drastically be reduced through the introduction of a deposit and refund system. Milk and yoghurts can be distributes in glass containers and all agricultural products, created in Sitio Joaninha or elsewhere, can be distributed without packaging and by weight. Packaging for toys, electric appliances and similar objects have to be disposed by the shops that sold them. In the shops, plastic bags should not be given free of charge and paper packaging should generally be preferred to plastic packaging. More efficient building methods as proposed in the chapter "Construction and Materials" will help to reduce construction waste during production and will rise, through the avoidance of composite materials the later chances for recycling. Courses about household economics and environmental awareness will also help to create consumer conscience. Thus, the creation of waste will further be reduced, because product with polluting substances like FCKW, chlorinated hydrocarbons, phenol, formaldehyde, PHB-ester, benzoic acid, hexachlorophene, resorcinol and countless other substances will be avoided.

Nevertheless, nationwide distributed products, often packed in plastic containers, metal cans and TetraPaks will be in the shelves of the shops and their packaging has to be dealt with in Sitio Joaninha.

      

      
Source: http://nirvana.wnet.com.br/~lixoreciclavel/

To keep thinks simple, I suggest, that the household waste of Sitio Joaninha should be collected in three different containers.

Biological waste

All biological household waste and garden cuttings should either be individually composted or collected by the farmers or cooperatives for composting. Septic tank sludge, whenever available can be co-composted together with the other biological waste by the farmers or cooperatives. Resulting communal agreements can strengthen the social cohesion.

Paper waste

All paper (without plastic coating) should be collected separately, thus its recycling can be economised and facilitated.

Source: http://www.rio.rj.gov.br/comlurb/

Small plastic and metal packaging

They need to be separated after collection into the different materials for further recycling.

Other waste, like glass and hazardous waste (batteries, mineral oils, chemicals, etc) should be collected centrally and carefully disposed for recycling.

I am confident, that the many years of experience of some of the waste pickers will make the realisation of the scheme possible within the proper administration of Sito Joaninha.

For further reading on the subject also refere to the following link:

The Global Development Research Center