a Verde. It means Green Lota. And Green Lota means a step into sustainability of waste management system that integrates waste re-use and recycling strategies, while engaging the community and improving the economy of the city. Solid waste collection and disposal in Chile are the responsibility of municipal governments. Lota was able to secure a contract with empresa HIMCE in 2008 for the removal of solid waste and its transportation to Coronel landfill 12.5 km from the city.
Additionally, a number of people - chatarerros - make their living in the informal waste recycling sector. The groups involved include door-to-door collectors, street scavengers, traders and dealers in waste materials. Such recycling activities are not well integrated into the solid waste collection and disposal system in Lota.
One of the major problems in Lota's solid waste sector is that many tons of solid waste collected are improperly disposed of in open dumps that do not meet sanitary standards. In addition, there seems to be little active management over what is dumped, how it is treated, and what fees are collected.
Some of the social costs associated with improper waste disposal include contamination of both surface and ground water, spread of disease, and uncontrolled population of stray animals.
In Lota, the high standard quarters and average standard quarters benefit from house-to-house garbage collection. However, this service is relatively low or non-existent in temporary housing quarters. MSW management is malfunctioning, because of the lack of paved roads - HIMCE trucks are simply not able to reach these dwellings.
The final convincing point was a visit to a local middle school escuela Adventista, where Sam and I along with Miki and Cote (IwB and Duoc students) conducted several exercises. One of which drew from Lorenzo Imbesi idea of a perfect city. The question that we asked during one of the exercises was “What is your ideal city?”. Children filled a sheet of paper with many wonderful features of Lota, including its beautiful parks, and beaches. However, about half of the paper featured phrase “sin basura”, which means “without garbage”. Children, which are supposed to be the future of the city, are concerned with the amount of poorly treated waste on the streets of their city.
The scope of this project allows me to address the design of a waste management container that will be used for transporting sorted solid waste to a neighbourhood transfer station. Further sorting and recycling/reusing operations could be carried out by chatarerros, thus, incorporating informal waste picking within a formal waste management sector. The transfer station will not be addressed to the same extent and detail as the container. However, it is recognized as a key component of a suggested WM system in Lota. Without such transfer station, the waste container will be ineffective.
The development of an artifact to fit within the system will be guided by three design principles.
- Scale and configuration of device should take up minimum space in the home of the resident of Lota.
- When the device is engaged, it should promote recycling , re-use, and proper management of waste, while being comfortable and safe to use.
- The device must be integrated int a natural topography and underdeveloped road system of Lota.
- Quality and comprehensiveness of visual appearance and function of device is vital. Functioning components, such as handles, lids, hinges, etc. should receive careful consideration.
Lota faces the same challenges as many other cities with stagnant economies in terms of poor infrastructure, high prevalence of the informal sector, and poor public awareness on safe domestic waste management techniques. Public awareness is needed, but this could be useless if the community is not actively participating in the process.
The construction of transfer stations would be a good solution to reduce distances between households and waste collection sites. Appropriate waste container for recyclables and other types of solid waste would be complimentary to the proposed station.
No comments:
Post a Comment