No abstract

It is estimated that 51% of Brazilian urban solid waste is composed of organic material, which has a high recyclability potential via alternative processes. One means of optimization and recycling this fraction would be the popularization of household composting and the dissemination of means of attaining it. The current study objective, therefore, was to evaluate control characters of the household organic residue composting process, test final organic compound product quality and investigate the feasibility of conducting such processes in urban dwellings. Organic residues were collected for three days, distributed over a week, in 20 residences of the urban area of Marmeleiro municipality, Paraná State, southern Brazil. A compost heap was set up with an initial mass of 137.21 kg of organic material. During the degradation process, temperature, dry mass, volume, pH, electrical conductivity, phytotoxicity, volatile solids, total organic carbon exothermic accumulation, and loss of organic matter were measured. At the end of the process, the CTC, CTC:COT, total nitrogen and C:N ratio were also determined. Throughout the composting process it was recorded that the germination index went from 45.27 to 109.43, as the material changed from being dominated by phytotoxic compounds to phytostimulants. In addition, organic compound CTC increased from 27.2 to 57.8, showing organic material degradation occurred in only 37 days. The experimental analysis of the degradation process, has shown that treatment of urban organic waste in compost heaps is both viable and safe under domestic circumstances.

A educação ambiental tem como princípio a transformação social, a fim de poder pensar, viver e sustentar um mundo melhor. Deve gerar mudanças na quailidade de vida e mais consciência na conduta pessoal, para que desta forma haja harmonia entre os seres humanos e destes com outras formas de vida existentes. É um tema que deve ser trabalhado de forma interdisicplinar nas escolas, de forma permanentemente, para que através da aprendizagem constituam-se cidadãos conscientizados e preocupados com a sociedade. A presente pesquisa objetivou verificar a percepção e práticas educativas ambientais dos alunos do Ensino Fundamental II de uma escola rural do Município de Itá - SC. Através de um questionário com 25 perguntas mistas, atingiu-se 100% dos alunos, ou seja, 46 alunos. De acordo com a análise dos dados, os estudantes envolvidos na pesquisa apresentam uma boa percepção ambiental além de possuírem em nível geral amplo conhecimento sobre meio ambiente e temas relacionados a ele. No entanto, acredita-se que haja a necessidade de implantar projetos contínuos na escola, a fim de fecilitar a aprendizagem e consequentemente tarzer benefícios a todos os seres que afzem parte do ecossistema.