The city of Rosario, in Santa Fe, is transforming the processing of its organic waste by promoting composting.
Through a new program, called Organic Community, the aim is to turn waste composting into a collective practice.
This is crucial in a city that generates 800 tons of garbage per day, with 60% being biodegradable materials.
This organic fraction represents 20% of local greenhouse gases. To reduce this impact, the municipality launched this organic waste composting program.
The initiative trains, supports, and provides composters to homes, institutions, and collective spaces in the city.
The first step to impose waste composting: inform
One of the main challenges of the organic waste composting program is changing negative perceptions about the process.
“There are many myths around compost, that it smells,” said Andrea Paoloni, general director of Climate Action for the municipality, in statements to El Litoral.
However, “if one does waste composting correctly, it should not smell bad, nor have bugs, nor have flies,” clarified the official.
In this regard, the program’s training sessions address key technical aspects for the system’s proper functioning:
- Balance between wet and dry materials
- Techniques for aeration and maintenance
- Adaptation to different types of housing, including small spaces
Schools, homes, and consortiums, key to the process
Currently, 98 institutions participate in the program: schools, libraries, clubs, cultural centers, neighborhood associations, and health centers. Half of them are educational establishments.
In schools, training reaches the entire teaching staff and pedagogical materials are provided to work on the topic in the classroom.
Homes can join by writing to [email protected]. From there, the municipal team coordinates training and provides 20-liter composters.
In the last three years, about 2,700 families have participated in the training sessions, organized in two meetings: one introductory and another focused on practice.
The program has also progressed in consortiums, although Paoloni acknowledged that this modality is more challenging due to the diversity of people and cultural practices.
The process of waste composting in consortiums requires the participation of all the families in the building to ensure its functioning.
“Composting always invites us to work with others. It is a collective activity,” stated Paoloni. She added, “It is not an individual habit, but a collective habit that improves our quality of life as a society.”
The official also highlighted that environmental awareness has grown in recent years and that the climate crisis presents itself as an urgency that calls for community action.
The Rosario municipality seeks to ensure that organic waste composting ceases to be an isolated practice and becomes an urban habit sustained over time.
Source: El Litoral
