OUR WORK
Aldeia Lixo Zero (Zero Waste Community) works with families living in isolated areas in the Brazilian Amazon and with leaders from traditional communities to raise awareness about the dangers of disposing and burning of waste in the forest. We also work with local and state governments and cooperatives to improve the disposal and recycling of solid waste. Our work includes:
- Building local skills in how to reduce, reuse and recycle specific materials and how to compost organic waste;
- Organizing communities' cleanups;
- Removing solid waste for recycling;
- Building recyclable waste stations in the villages;
- Supplying families with solar flashlights and reusable batteries that can be recharged;
- Providing set of containers for different types of waste (compost, recyclable, toxic, etc.) and offering training in how to sort them;
- Setting up villages' composting systems;
- Putting up zero waste signs throughout villages to inform visitors;
- Mediating with state agents from local municipalities and the residents of nearby villages to better organise the disposal and recycling of solid waste and implement the National Policy for Solid Waste;
- Supporting the institutionalisation of local cooperatives.
How far into the wilderness does garbage reach? Sadly, isolated places in the Brazilian Amazon already have waste problems. We created Aldeia Lixo Zero because we’ve heard the call of the forest. This initiative is only possible because of collective intelligence and creative collaboration.
““The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable man.” ”