2023 Award "Best Practice in Citizen Participation"

17th Edition

Phase 6 of 7

Publication Preparation 18/09/2023 - 06/11/2023

Process phases

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Belo Horizonte: CEMAR (Municipal Center of Reference in Agroecology and Environmental Education for Organic Waste)

Official proposal

06/06/2023 17:17

In 1995, the Superintendence of Urban Cleaning (SLU) inaugurated its first recycling station (ERE), in the Estoril neighborhood, as an integral part of the civil construction waste management program of Belo Horizonte. Despite the innovative character of the ERE-Estoril at the time, its installation provoked strong resistance from the surrounding population. In 2013, the residents' movement was successful and achieved the deactivation of the ERE-Estoril and the signing of a Conduct Adjustment Agreement with the State Public Prosecutor's Office, in which the city of Belo Horizonte committed to adopt a series of measures under a Degraded Area Recovery Plan (PRAD).

The project consists of three axes of action. The first consists in the recovery of the degraded area previously occupied by ERE-Estoril. The second axis focuses on the production of seedlings to support the city's community urban agriculture actions. The third is aimed at developing environmental education actions on organic household waste management, agroecology, urban agriculture, and environmental conservation.

Between 2018 and 2020, through the Management of Education for Urban Cleaning (Geelu), SLU developed several activities related to home composting, including the training of 15 families from “Ocupação Izidora” (An occupation located in the northern sector of Belo Horizonte that arose in June 2013 and occupies land that until then did not fulfill its social function and that today has more than 1500 families).

Another relevant action was the training of employees and teachers of the Municipal School Hélio Pellegrino and the monitoring of the actions in the pilot project Composting at School. About ten workshops related to home composting and solid waste management were promoted, in which 210 students from the Trilhas Agroecológicas project, in partnership with Susan, were trained. In the home composting workshops at SLU, SMMA and Cemar, more than 150 participants were trained.