The Project “Waste Generation and Conscious Consumption” has been

developed in Diadema city that has one of the most demographic

densities of Brazil. This population concentration causes an increase of

the waste generation in the city as well as a decrease of depositions

areas with incurring managing costs.

This project has begun in 2008 with support of the City Hall when

UNIFESP students have mapped the waste generated in several areas of

the city. The data obtained were used to develop educational material.

This material was used to provide environmental education classes in

municipal schools (Figures 1 and 2). The aim of these classes was to

sensitize the children because they represent future generations and they

have a greater ease in passing on to parents and family what they havelearned, and this is very good to the progress of the project.

ENVIRONMENT, WASTE GENERATION AND CONSCIOUS CONSUMPTION

¹Carolina Y. S Theophilo, ¹Paul Fooster, ²Ivone Silveira da Silva.¹Students and ²Professor of UNIFESP – Campus Diadema

Figure 1: Picture of children of the School Hall

Anita Catarina Malfatti making toys with

reused material.

Figure 2: Students making a filter of PET bottle,

rock and cotton by students of elementary school

(5th year).

There was also made a mapping of the quantity of waste generation, whose

data appears in FREIRE et al. (2009) work.

First of all, it was achieved a fieldwork in which was possible to observe a

large quantity of trash in the stream flows of Diadema city.

Classes of environmental education to students from 1st to 5th year of

elementary school. For each classroom of the School Anita Catarina Malfatti.

MAIN APPROACHES:

3 R’s = Reduce, Reuse and Recycle on figure 7;

Waste generation;

Waste generation disposal.

The main goal is to promote environmental awareness especially in

relation to waste generation, the recycling importance and conscious

consumption, focusing on students between 5 and 10 years old. The

project also aims to make students pass on the knowledge acquired to

parents, family and neighbors, so that the conscious consumption can

grow in the community where these children live.

Elementary school children are still very needy of more classes like

those;

A lot of them have been learning wrong attitudes from their parents,

like throwing trash in the streets, waste a lot, not recycling;

A positive point of these classes was the interest in the environment

demonstrated by the most students;

Even the younger are attentive to the problems related to waste

generation and to conscious consumption.

Figure 3: Drawing made by a student of

the 5th year (elementary school) after the

class about conscious consumption.

Figure 4: Drawing made by a student of

the 5th year (elementary school) about the

future, if we take care of our waste or not.

Figure 5: Drawing made by a student of

the 2nd year (elementary school) after the

class about recycling.

Figure 6: Drawing made by a student of

the 1st year (elementary school),

showing what attitude we should have.

Basic knowledge about environment cares;

Concepts were depth with during classes of

Environmental Education;

Interest from students in problems involved to

the question of waste generation.

Figure 7: The 3 R’s, Reduce,

Reuse and Recycle, in order of

importance.

The knowledge acquired was measured by drawing made in the final of some

classes, showed in figures 3, 4, 5 and 6, and by questions formulated in the

beginning of each new class about the topic previously addressed. Thus,

there were made graphics about the results, obtained in the following figure

8. The students participated of the practice classes too, revealing themselves

a more efficient method of explaining some concepts, for example, the

difference between recycle and reuse. They got very excited with the toys

that they could produce by reused materials, which showed itself a positive

result.

67,14%61,83%

68,42%

84,31%76,62%

32,86%38,17%

31,58%

15,69%23,38%

0,0%

20,0%

40,0%

60,0%

80,0%

100,0%

1st year 2nd year 3rd year 4th year 5th year

Recycling Importance

Understood

Not Understood

39,4%49,2%

55,6%

49,0%54,3%

60,6%50,8%

44,4%

51,0%45,7%

0,0%

20,0%

40,0%

60,0%

80,0%

100,0%

1st year 2nd year 3rd year 4th year 5th year

3R s Concept and ConsciousConsumption

Understood

Not understood

Figure 8: Results of the knowledge acquired by the children after all the classes, through the

analysis of the drawings and of the answers about the topics addressed.

CONCLUSIONS

GOAL

INTRODUCTION

METHODOLOGY

RESULTS