A pertinência da educação ambiental a partir do diagnóstico da coleta seletiva de resíduos sólidos em Ituiutaba – MG – Brasil entre os anos 2005 e 2015

Abstract

Educating environmentally the individual represents a primordial guideline in the face of relevant challenges to the consumption and individualism praised by the type of globalizing development in which mankind is immersed. The theme of this research encompasses environmental education and the dry recyclable residues that result from the consumption and the way of life in the present time, since it envisages selective collection actions, a significant contribution of environmental education in favor of the conservation of natural resources and of life on the planet. This research aimed to know if, as a practice of environmental education, a selective collection of dry recyclable waste in Ituiutaba presents effectively itself. Among the purposes of this research, we also sought to reflect on rational thinking and its possible influence on environmental perception, taking into account how the way society is structured acts on human ignorance of the complex network of social and ecological exist. Another purpose of this research was to discuss the man in the contemporary world and his interaction with the place in the daily life, seeking to show that the environmental crisis that man experiences both suffers and exerts direct action on his way of life and the quality of the environment. Finally, this study also aimed to analyze the disposal of dry recyclable waste in the city of Ituiutaba from 2005 to 2015, from the perspective of the Diagnosis of Urban Solid Waste Management, prepared annually by the National Information System on Sanitation (NISS). Created in 1996 by the Federal Government, initially NISS collected data referring only to water and/or sewage service providers as information regarding the management of solid urban waste began to be collected from 2002. Considered the largest and most important information system in the Brazilian sanitation sector because it has a database, the NISS is a planning aid tool and execution of public sanitation policies, the orientation of the application of resources, knowledge and evaluation of the sanitation sector, an orientation of regulatory and supervisory activities, among others. Considering the selected temporal cut, we sought to verify the degree of involvement of the local community with the proper disposal of the dry recyclable residues from the data quantification. For this, the methodology adopted consisted of bibliographical, documentary and field research, with a qualitative-quantitative approach. Regarding the objectives, this research was classified as descriptive. The data collection step with the NISS through spreadsheets and tables greatly helped in tabulating the data and elaborating the graphical representations of the results, making it possible to analyze the numbers as representative of the residents' involvement with the separation of the dry recyclable residues and, therefore, for environmental conservation. Through the results achieved, it has been diagnosed that environmental education is in a strategic position to reach the individual-consumer in order to awaken him to a critical understanding of the environmental impact of his exacerbated and often unnecessary consumption.