“Can I put paper cups in the blue bin?”. Municipality raises awareness of commercial spaces for better recycling

“Can I put paper cups in the blue bin?”. “Do I have to wash the packages before depositing them in the yellow bin?”. “Can I put broken dishes in the ‘vidrão’?”. There are less doubts, but they still arise. To help commercial spaces better separate the waste they produce, Porto Ambiente places, awareness teams on the ground every day. Fines are avoided and the cleaner city thanks you.

At that restaurant in Baixa, the first changes have already started to be implemented. Employees attend a session in Plano de Formação Ambiental, at the municipal company for the Environment, after the first team has passed through the facilities and detected some irregularities.

Unaware or not, non-compliance with the regulation entitles to penalties.

Today, they are all there to do better. To understand that paper cups do not go in the blue bin, that they do not need to wash the plastic or metal packages, and that glasses and dishes only have place in the undifferentiated bin.

“Many times, we find that employees do not comply because they do not have the conditions created”, acknowledges Ana Rita Morence. The Porto Ambiente trainer says that “the goal of these awareness actions is, essentially, to publicize our service regulations and change habits and mentalities regarding the correct management of waste by commercial spaces”. “We do not intend to sanction the commercial space”, she reinforces.

Because the process does not end with the rubbish properly separated into the bag, management also takes place on the street, with the correct disposal in proximity containers (even in terms of the time at which it happens) to, recalls Ana Rita Morence, “avoid situations of insalubrity on the public road”. If it is full, the trainees already know: either put it in another bin or go back with the garbage bag.

Separate Rubbish, reduced rubbish

In 2021 alone, the teams performed more than 1.500 awareness actions and, this year, Porto Ambiente has 86 commercial spaces included in the Plano de Formação Ambiental. Restaurants, hotels, cafes, stores, all are “receptive and show a lot of interest”. And the actions have been having results: “the trainees tell us that, they are reducing considerably the quantity of undifferentiated waste, because they are doing a correct separation”, assures the trainer from Porto Ambiente.

At Conga restaurant, “in the beginning there was a bit of resistance, due to the habits adopted over many years”, assumes the managing partner, Sérgio Oliveira. After the visit by the municipal team, “changes were made in organizational terms” and everyone now uses “bins to separate normal garbage, cans, glass”.

Regarding the actions of the municipal team, the person in charge acknowledges what they learned from the training. “The support was fundamental for us to be inside the legal and essential parameters”, says Sérgio Oliveira.

From Baixa to Foz, Porto Ambiente also played a “fundamental role in raising awareness”. This is how the director of Vila Foz Hotel e Spa defines the help they have received from the municipal company.

“It helps us to share information with our managers, it gives us the opportunity to clarify doubts to employees who directly make the separation on a daily basis”, explains Serafim Ramos, for whom the separation made by the Hotel is “very important”.

The director of that Hotel admits that “one of the major difficulties that exist is the space in the operational places”. However, “we found a solution together and strategies to make the separation more accurate here”, not mixing items “disabling subsequent recycling”, using the signage that Porto Ambiente makes available on the internet, and passing the information on to all employees.

From work to home, recycling is a complete cycle

The first approach, which detects the existence of irregularities, is followed by clarification sessions, and a new visit to verify whether the recommendations have been put into practice. But periodically, the team also appears, without prior notice, to guarantee the continuity of the best waste separation.

At the end, after implementing the necessary changes, the facility receives a certificate. However, for Ana Rita Morence, the most significant reflection is that pedagogy has more strength than the penalty “some trainees who did not recycle at home, today admit that it is hard for them not having the same practice as they have at the workplace”. A bottle, a card box, a can at a time.