806
R. A. Teixeira et al.
2 Sustainable Practices for Organic Waste Management
in Ifes
The Federal Institute of Espirito Santo (Ifes), Vitoria campus, located in the city
of Vitoria, Espirito Santo, Brazil, is a public institution of vocational and higher
technical education, founded in 1909. Its mission is to promote a professional public
education of excellence, integrating teaching, research and extension, contributing
to the construction of a democratic, just and sustainable society. The current network
of Federal Institutes of the state of Espirito Santo was created in 2008 and has 22
campuses installed in the state, in all regions, with a total of 19,000 students.
The Vitória campus currently has about 4000 technical, undergraduate and graduate students, as well as 293 faculty members, 175 technical-administrative staff, and
80 external collaborators.
The Ifes courses last between 2 and 5 years, and can be offered in three shifts
(morning, afternoon and night). Students are admitted every semester or annually,
depending on the course and therefore there is a high turnover of people who use the
campus. In addition, the large number of campus users contributes to the generation
of waste at the site, including organic waste, since most students, employees and
external collaborators use the campus during the lunch period.
The existence of specific environmental courses in the campus (Environmental
Technician, bachelor in Sanitary and Environmental Engineering and Master in Sustainable Technologies) arouses interest in the practice of more sustainable actions
by students and teachers/professors. Among these actions, in 2012, a research group
was created to study the management organic solid waste (OSW) on the institution.
Among the forms of valorization, composting technique was chosen to start the study,
because the campus has a large number of areas with gardens. Small-scale composting as a sustainable practice for the recovery of organic waste has been studied since
2012 at Vitoria Campus. In this theme, several researches were developed, focusing
on the evaluation of the composting potential in the institution: small-scale composting parameters, ways to improve the efficiency of the process, and evaluation of
small-scale composting to value organic solid waste (OSW) generated in educational
institutions (Costa et al. 2016; Korres et al. 2013; Souza et al. 2016).
As a starting point for the surveys, the institution’s inventory of organic waste
was carried out. Its strategy was to raise awareness and environmental education of
the target public, to carry out actions focused on small generators distributed in the
various sectors present on campus. Thus, in 2013, the action of selective collection
of organic within the campus was initiated. The collected organic wastes were sent to
the composting area of the Biotechnology and Sustainability laboratory—Labiotecs
(Fig. 1). The study began in an experimental way, being gradually extended, and
currently the main objective is to include the restaurant of the institution within the
actions of the project.
Small-scale composting has the same goal of large-scale composting, which is to
degrade organic matter, generating a compound, which can be used in soils. However,
on a small-scale, vertical boxes (Fig. 2), which may or may not contain earthworms,
R. A. Teixeira et al.
2 Sustainable Practices for Organic Waste Management
in Ifes
The Federal Institute of Espirito Santo (Ifes), Vitoria campus, located in the city
of Vitoria, Espirito Santo, Brazil, is a public institution of vocational and higher
technical education, founded in 1909. Its mission is to promote a professional public
education of excellence, integrating teaching, research and extension, contributing
to the construction of a democratic, just and sustainable society. The current network
of Federal Institutes of the state of Espirito Santo was created in 2008 and has 22
campuses installed in the state, in all regions, with a total of 19,000 students.
The Vitória campus currently has about 4000 technical, undergraduate and graduate students, as well as 293 faculty members, 175 technical-administrative staff, and
80 external collaborators.
The Ifes courses last between 2 and 5 years, and can be offered in three shifts
(morning, afternoon and night). Students are admitted every semester or annually,
depending on the course and therefore there is a high turnover of people who use the
campus. In addition, the large number of campus users contributes to the generation
of waste at the site, including organic waste, since most students, employees and
external collaborators use the campus during the lunch period.
The existence of specific environmental courses in the campus (Environmental
Technician, bachelor in Sanitary and Environmental Engineering and Master in Sustainable Technologies) arouses interest in the practice of more sustainable actions
by students and teachers/professors. Among these actions, in 2012, a research group
was created to study the management organic solid waste (OSW) on the institution.
Among the forms of valorization, composting technique was chosen to start the study,
because the campus has a large number of areas with gardens. Small-scale composting as a sustainable practice for the recovery of organic waste has been studied since
2012 at Vitoria Campus. In this theme, several researches were developed, focusing
on the evaluation of the composting potential in the institution: small-scale composting parameters, ways to improve the efficiency of the process, and evaluation of
small-scale composting to value organic solid waste (OSW) generated in educational
institutions (Costa et al. 2016; Korres et al. 2013; Souza et al. 2016).
As a starting point for the surveys, the institution’s inventory of organic waste
was carried out. Its strategy was to raise awareness and environmental education of
the target public, to carry out actions focused on small generators distributed in the
various sectors present on campus. Thus, in 2013, the action of selective collection
of organic within the campus was initiated. The collected organic wastes were sent to
the composting area of the Biotechnology and Sustainability laboratory—Labiotecs
(Fig. 1). The study began in an experimental way, being gradually extended, and
currently the main objective is to include the restaurant of the institution within the
actions of the project.
Small-scale composting has the same goal of large-scale composting, which is to
degrade organic matter, generating a compound, which can be used in soils. However,
on a small-scale, vertical boxes (Fig. 2), which may or may not contain earthworms,