Community education and ecological management of domestic solid waste

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Greetings dear friends of @ecoTrain, in this first thematic publication of the year 2021, I wanted to share with all of you content related to community education, as a central axis of non-formal training, which both adults, children and adolescents receive directly in their social environment, plays a significant role in solving common problems suffered by communities, through the exchange of urban-rural knowledge and academic.


Introduction


From a social-critical approach, community education is conceived as the pedagogical process, whose purpose is to promote participation, organization and community work, in other words, a non-formal area of education that serves as an elementary support in the contextualized formation of the realities that constitute a social environment.

The objective of the community education, is based on the process of teaching learning in situ where the subject is considered as the autonomous agent and generator of his own training.

This generating role is of a collective nature, and has as a premise to promote an education that favors self-determination, as a liberating tool for marginalized, underdeveloped social ecosystems without active roles in social, economic and cultural aspects with evident creative absences for the solution of their problems.


Ecological management as a community outreach strategy


Ecological management

It is admitted by ecological management, to the administrative relation that is carried out in favor of consolidating a rational management of the natural resources, in the search for constituting conducive strategies to diminish the impacts of environmental deterioration.

Fig. 2 The production of compost from domestic waste is an ecological management alternative. Author: @lupafilotaxia.

Within these strategies, the community extension devised in university environments with the purpose of acting as a formative bridge and direct contact with the communities, can be implemented as a vehicle to promote the Ecological Management, considering that the most relevant pollution problems come from the accumulation of domestic solid waste generated in urban ecosystems.

In countries such as Venezuela, community outreach with environmental impact is carried out in the communities by university representatives under two vital aspects. The first is promoted by professors through environmental projects, whose purpose and actions are focused on improving the quality of life of urban ecosystems; the other element is promoted through community service activities that by law are carried out by students, through a cooperative and supportive role of reciprocal acts to achieve socio-environmental welfare.


Characterization of domestic solid waste


Domestic solid waste, commonly referred to as garbage, comprises waste that comes from households, among which the following four categories are usually weighted;

A. Food waste (rich in nitrogen), those that structurally are in soft form, coming from products destined to the feeding are called rest of food, fruits, vegetables among others.

Fig. 3 Food scraps, fruits, and vegetables can be used to make compost. Image of public domain, Author: Couleur, 2018

B. Dry (carbon-rich) waste, material generated by pruning trees, shrubs and herbaceous stubble, also included in this class are litter (dry leaves), wood ash, vacuum cleaner and floor dust.

Fig. 4 Tree bark has ideal properties for the production of solid bioproducts. Image of public domain, Author: PublicD, 2012

C. Recycling material (rich in carbon), consisting of paper and cardboard sheets.

Fig. 5 Recycled paper to produce bioproducts. Image of public domain, Author: Hans, 2015

D. Animal manure (source of microbial flora), highlight the feces of domestic animals specifically cattle, pigs, sheep, birds among others.

Fig. 6 The animal manure, in addition to the nutritional contribution facilitates microbial activity for the decomposition process in the compost. Image of public domain, Author: Vantagepointfl, 2013


Methodologies for the elaboration of Bioproducts based on domestic solid waste


Within an urban social ecosystem, the methods for the elaboration of bioproducts based on domestic solid waste must guarantee the conditions of temperature, aeration and turning time, however, according to the conditions of urbanism the techniques are limited to these two systems of production:

Pile

The system in form of pile for the elaboration of bioproducts based on domestic solid remainders, is the most used in the urbanisms whose houses have patios with gardens, or residential set with common green areas, this technique consists of piling up (to pile up) the remainders in form of layers, adding in equal parts soft remainders and dry remainders, for this system it is recommendable to turn the pile every 15 days by a period of 2 months.

Fig. 7 The compost pile consists of piling up (stacking) the waste in the form of layers. Image of public domain, Author: Creisi, 2016

Container

The technique by means of containers, applies to urbanisms that do not have green areas called buildings or residential towers, the method used for the elaboration of bioproducts based on domestic solid residues, consists of adding the residues in plastic containers preferably with capacity of 100 liters, applying weekly frequencies of turn (to turn the container) by a period of 3 months.

Fig. 8 Plastic containers for the production of bioproducts from solid household waste. Image of public domain, Author: Rja1988, 2020

CONTRIBUTIONS OF THIS PUBLICATION


  • The elements socialized in this post, pursue to insert academic-scientific strategies, as tools of non formal training in the search of fomenting the effective ecological management of domestic solid waste, by means of the use of activities of community extension that allow to promote in the communities ecological values, linked to the advantage and use of this type of domestic waste in the elaboration of bioproducts type compost.


BIBLIOGRAPHICAL REFERENCES CONSULTED AND CITED:



[1] Kalambura S., Racz A., and Kalambura D. Education in Waste Management. 2015. Article: Online access

[2] Fredrick M., Oonyu J., and Sentongo J. Influence of Education on the Solid Waste Management Practices of Communities in Kampala City JEWM Influence of Education on the Solid Waste Management Practices of Communities in Kampala City. 2018. Article: Online access

[3] Karout N., and Altuwaijri S. Impact of health education on community knowledge, attitudes and behaviour towards solid waste management in Al Ghobeiry, Beirut. 2012. Article: Online access

[4] Odonkor E., Frimpong K., and Kurantin P. An assessment of house-hold solid waste management in a large Ghanaian district. 2020. Article: Online access


OBSERVATION


The cover image was designed by the author: @lupafilotaxia, incorporating the public domain background image Kalhh, 2014.


Original manuscript, uploaded from the ecoTrain community website





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1 comments
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Your post has been submitted to the OCD community curation initiative for some great upvotes! OCD are currently supporting posts in HIVE communities!

Congrats and keep posting great content!

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