Composting as community activation and promotion of inclusion and local development
Mouraria Composta is a community composting project that uses an electro-mechanical technique to transform organic waste into compost for use in the community's green spaces and for donation to participants. In a participatory model, it seeks to activate the local community, with more than 50 nationalities, using an environmentally creative and sustainable response to mobilize the inclusion of more vulnerable inhabitants, namely migrants and refugees.
Local
Portugal
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Mainly urban
It refers to a physical transformation of the built environment (hard investment)
No
No
Yes
As a representative of an organisation
Name of the organisation(s): Associação Renovar a Mouraria Type of organisation: Non-profit organisation First name of representative: Inês Last name of representative: Andrade Gender: Female Nationality: Portugal Function: Project manager Address (country of permanent residence for individuals or address of the organisation)<br/>Street and number: Beco do Rosendo, 8 e 10 Town: Lisbon Postal code: 1100-460 Country: Portugal Direct Tel:+351 966 258 593 E-mail:ines.andrade@renovaramouraria.pt Website:http://www.renovaramouraria.pt
URL:https://www.facebook.com/renovar.a.mouraria Social media handle and associated hashtag(s): #renovaramouraria #academiacvpt #interculturalidade #integração #recursos #website #energiabipzip #bipzip#migrantour #migrantourlisboa #sustainableroutes #academiacvpt #interculturalidade #integração #recursos #website #energiabipzip #bipzip
URL:https://www.facebook.com/mourariacomposta Social media handle and associated hashtag(s): #RenovaraMouraria #Compostagemcomunitária #Reciclagem #Compostagem #Vermicompostagem #MourariaComposta #BrigadadosBaldinhos
URL:https://www.instagram.com/mourariacomposta/ Social media handle and associated hashtag(s): #MourariaComposta #5Rs #Reutilizar #Reduzir #Renovar #Reaproveitar #ResidentesRotativos #Repensar #RecusaroPlástico #ArraialComposto #climatechange#Compostagem #Vermicompostagem #BrigadadosBaldinhos
URL:https://www.facebook.com/changing.hearth Social media handle and associated hashtag(s): #energiabipzip #nature #schools #gogreen #reutilize #sustainability #AGROFOREST
URL:https://www.instagram.com/changing.hearth/ Social media handle and associated hashtag(s): #energiabipzip #nature #schools #gogreen #reutilize #sustainability #AGROFOREST #ambiente #agrofloresta #educaçãoambiental
URL:https://www.instagram.com/renovaramouraria/ Social media handle and associated hashtag(s): #PARTICIPAÇAO #mouraria #espaçopúblico #Censos #portugal #foreigner #Population #demography #hamanhas #renovaramouraria #migrants #refugees #mouraria #attendances #citizenship #claim
Associação Renovar a Mouraria (ARM) has been developing pilot activities to test the effectiveness of composting in urban environments, combining environmental motivations with inclusion processes for vulnerable communities. Located in the centre of Lisbon, Mouraria is a historic neighbourhood where poverty, low education and an ageing population come together in contrast with the revitalisation brought about by different migratory waves with demographic rejuvenation. However, there is low civic participation and ignorance of the multiple cultures that live and work in the territory. The Casa Comunitária da Mouraria (CCM), head office of ARM, provides shelter and support to these communities, facing constant challenges, particularly with regard to cultural and language barriers. With a 15 years' experience in local development, the common thread found is the enhancement of public space and the improvement of environmental conditions.
The project aims to create an innovative ecosystem in the public space surrounding ARM, with the placement of an electromechanical compost bin, an pedagogical station, and urban vegetable gardens. There is a network of residents already adhering to the delivery of organic waste, and the aim is to introduce a type of composting that can respond to the transformation of the large amount of organic waste produced in the neighbourhood, with a compost bin of appropriate size and with technology to accelerate the process from 6 months to 6 weeks.
A pedagogical station for the development of awareness and action activities in the area of carpentery, gardening and permaculture. The beneficiaries of the CCM will be accompanied by the ARM technical team for an active and disseminating participation in neighbourhood networks, building a public space with all and for all. The requalification of the public space also includes interventions in terms of lighting and equipment that respect the aesthetic and landscape integration of the site.
Community composting
Social inclusion of vulnerable communities
Promotion of environmental quality in urban areas
Quality public spaces
Promotion of civic, active and community participation
-Contribute to the upcycling of organic waste, currently incinerated, turning it into natural fertiliser. Each inhabitant of Lisbon produces more than half a ton of waste every year. Around 20% of this waste is collected selectively, going for recycling. Of the 400 kg of undifferentiated waste, 41% is organic waste. This organic and biodegradable fraction of waste (which represents more than 160 kg per inhabitant and more than 88 thousand tons per year) is destined for incineration. This waste can be transformed into fertiliser through composting.
-Recycled organic waste can represent up to 30% substitution of chemical fertilisers. Portugal uses pesticides above the EU-27 average. Around 100 million euros/year in nutrients are wasted, which could be returned to the agricultural systems. The incentive to local and free food production and distribution is fundamental for access to quality products, promoting the change of a healthy food paradigm inaccessible to people with low economic resources. Active participation in circular economy processes also contributes to an ecological transition at the level of societal consumption paradigms in general.
-Create a green space in an urban environment, based on permaculture techniques, mitigating the adverse effects of dense urbanisation and creating an attractive ecosystem of biodiversity, through the introduction of native plants, shrubs and trees, with greater environmental resilience and a sustainable irrigation system using rainwater, and attracting pollinating birds and insects.
-To Measure Impact and result: Each customer has a login to the web app with a username and password and they can find on his dashboard the measurements made in real time, The name and address of the VAP, The number of openings, The number of households and inhabitants registered, The number of active users per month, Monthly and annual attendance, The volume of bio-waste (kg) collected per year, The volume of compost (kg) obtained per year.
“Beco” in Portuguese means “alley”. The Beco do Rosendo is a place with isolated corners, badly lit, with alcohol and drug consumption, with the days dawning with stairways covered with wine packets and glass bottles, urine and often human faeces. An alley that houses two social facilities and needs help to welcome the dozens of people who make a piece of their daily lives there:
1- ARM has been promoting social inclusion and community dynamism in the Mouraria neighbourhood for 15 years, based on a philosophy of integrated and sustainable local development. Its action is anchored in a building in Beco do Rosendo, the CCM, which has two rooms for welcoming and serving the public, managing classes, study support, training, cultural activities, etc.
2- The Nursery “Creche Encosta do Castelo”, which takes in dozens of children between the ages of 6 months and 3 years old, leading to an intense flow of families passing through in the surrounding area.
Restoring the connection with nature through the presence of gardens in densely built urban space is essential to mitigate aggressive urban images and the consequent psychological discomfort - bringing benefits to physical and mental health and mitigating Nature Deficit Disorder - as well as the socio-spatial segregation associated with urban contexts of vulnerability. The creation of a healthy and beautiful public space is a challenge to better meet the needs and expectations of an increasingly large, multicultural and ageing urban population.
The community meetings demonstrate a will to create green spaces, beautification of the alley's (Beco’s) most closed arteries through creative and sustainable lighting solutions, and artistic installations, with the simultaneous aim of building meet&share spaces that promote well-being and that are also places that deter practices which degrade public space and compromise public health.
We rely on the diversity of actors involved, from children and families to technical teams with multidisciplinary theoretical and practical knowledge to create decentralised and participatory mechanisms for planning, intervention and management of inclusive spaces. We have already developed community activation projects, such as Mouraria Participa or Há Manhãs, which promote community meetings seeking to actively involve the population in decision-making processes. We offer free services in legal support, migrant regularisation, support for employment and entrepreneurship, study support, social and psychological support as well as we promote cultural events. However, the generational, cultural and socio-economic difference of these direct beneficiaries makes it difficult to find common moments to bring everyone together in a common goal. By surveying community interests through the participatory method, we realised that the most aggregating element is the environmental issue, namely urban hygiene and meeting spaces for multiple communities. A meeting space where children and young people, families and older people, who are very isolated and sedentary, can come together, may be the key to uniting this diversity. In a study carried out by ARM (Análise situacional, attached), we found that public space is the place where people most experience discrimination, due to skin colour, accent, gender, etc. At the same time, housing conditions are inadequate, with small houses, high prices and no living space, forcing people to share a house with many, and there are still some homeless people unable to rent a house due to high real estate speculation. Therefore, public space assumes a particularly relevant function, as it is the existing meeting place for social life. The location of the CCM and this intervention project, adjacent to the public space, is crucial to generate a sense of belonging, in a territory where more than 40 different languages and dialects are spoken.
We believe that spaces, like cultures, are dynamic and constantly under construction/reconstruction. It is fundamental to create a sense of global community in a territory as diverse as Mouraria, respecting people's forms of expression, art and knowledge, traditions and customs. The relationship between space and people is crucial for positive construction of a new concept of citizenship, so demanding in contemporary societies. Encounters in public space are the best bridges for dialogue and shared life experiences.
“Mediation represents the essential social imperative of the dialectics between the singular and the collective, and of its representation in symbolic forms. Society can only exist if each of its members is aware of a dialectical relation between his/her own existence and the existence of the community.” Lamizet (cit in Neighbourhood & City).
The public space is therefore the place of democratic affirmation, preventive of all forms of discrimination, exclusion and stigmatisation, thus, ideal for health promotion activities.
The National Health Service (SNS) has managed to improve the population's health, namely in the increase of average life expectancy and descrease of mortality from treatable causes, placing Portugal above the European average in these indicators. However, Portuguese continue to feel sicker than the great majority of European citizens, living comparatively fewer years of healthy life. This mismatch may show a failure in promoting the population's health, with implications that overflow the limits of the health services and serious individual, social and economic consequences. In this context, the solution to this scenario may begin with the involvement of all actors, starting with the individual in their community. When only 20% of the population's health outcomes depend on the action of the health system, it is necessary to create collaborative networks of proximity with sectors that contribute to health and well-being.
USF-The Social Prescribing Project is a model that allows health professionals to detect situations of social vulnerability or lifestyle needs and then refer the patient to a social prescribing link worker, who coordinates a local integrated network of community health promotion resources. The technician and the patient co-design a non-clinical prescription, capable of acting positively in the patient's life context, with benefits for his/her health and well-being. ARM is a partner in this network and in addition to the different services already existing, intends to integrate composting, horticulture and gardening in the scope of that prescription.
The Santa Maria Maior Parish Council is an essential partner in the project's implementation, by allowing and licensing interventions in public spaces, by referring participants and by collaborating in the awareness raising and action in the area of urban hygiene in the neighbourhood.
Santa Casa da Misericórdia de Lisboa-São Cristóvão Day Centre: collection of organic waste in the canteen, participative sessions, referral of senior beneficiaries to horticulture and gardening activities, non-formal sessions on a tandem one-to-one basis between older people and children.
Santa Casa da Misericórdia de Lisboa-Nursery Encosta do Castelo: collecting organic waste, participative sessions with children, families and educators, referral of beneficiaries for horticulture and gardening activities, non-formal sessions in a tandem one-to-one basis between older person and children.
BAIRROS-ADL: support on the development of upcycling activities and referral of vulnerable people for training and job opportunities.
INSITU: expertise and mobilisation of the community, creation of aesthetic and innovative appealing image.
SAMESAME COLIVING & BECO Co-Work: "ally the best we both have with the local community" - a creative international community, made of people from all over the world that share the same values and ideas.
Local development and community activation: through the multidisciplinary ARM team and the 15 years' experience in intervention in the territory. We have professionals in the areas of formal and non-formal education, communication, design and illustration, artistic and cultural production, social service, legal and mental health support.
Community mediation: the ARM team has 3 intercultural community mediators who support Asian, African, European and Portuguese-speaking communities.
Permaculture: ARM has created an agroforest in a public school, with a professional specialized in the growth and development of green spaces in urban environments.
Carpentry and joinery: training equipment design and creation.
Landscape architecture: together with the partners of the co-work BECO, we have the support and knowledge for a technically rigorous implementation, alongside the aesthetic criteria appropriate to the site's historical context and architecture.
Health: in addition to ARM's mental health team, the partnership with the USF allows a line of proximity action for the referral of the unit's beneficiaries.
Education: ARM has 4 technicians specialized in education who develop projects in various schools in Lisbon and also in CCM. These projects are based on inclusion and study support and assist mainly migrant and refugee students in the learning of Portuguese language through innovative methodologies.
In addition to the team's diversity, ARM has about 100 volunteers who collaborate on different projects and are key drivers in the very dynamization of the community. Our projects are always based on interdisciplinary knowledge and methodologies, formal and non-formal, combining technical knowledge with experience and understanding of the territory. Everyone has a saying and our philosophy is a constant learning path where we all have something to teach and we all have something to learn, despite and inspite of our educational background: life is the best school.
Community composting in urban areas is still very incipient even in the most developed cities. The pilot project that we developed showed that the lack of knowledge on composting techniques is common to all generations and cultures, there being only one group within the 30/40 age spam with high schooling that has knowledge and interest (see documentary in attachment). Mouraria has unique demographic characteristics, with an influx of people from high socio-economic classes, mainly foreigners, mixing with local Portuguese residents. At the same time, Mouraria has become, in recent years, a neighbourhood with a strong tourist attraction due to its location, historical heritage and peculiar mix of cultures and ancestral traditions. Mobilising such a diverse community is the greatest challenge. We believe that a small-scale pilot, with innovative technology in the composting process and the creation of a green space that brings people together can represent a unique model of social and environmental intervention, creating a strong link between the inhabitants.
Electromechanical composting is the compromise between the industrial and the low-tech approach. It allows composting all bio-waste, including meat, fish and cooked food. It eliminates the disadvantages of traditional composting: odours, pests and low volume capacity. The equipment uses paddles that mix the material every 2 hours and ensure oxygenation to optimise the work of thermophilic bacteria, naturally present in waste, and which compost faster: the process is 32 times faster than cold composting! They are technologically intelligent: they weigh the waste, ensure traceability of materials and temperatures, "Hygiene+" for sensitive waste and have acceleration and waning programmes to respond to times of higher or lower waste production. It can be programmed on site but also online on a digital platform. It has access codes so that network members can place waste and guarantee the safety of the process.
Creation of a Good Practice Manual for replicability, with a version in PT and ENG, available online and for free.
Themes: 1-What is community composting; 2-The importance of an appropriate technology for the territory; 3-Urban context; 4-Socio-economic context of the community: vulnerabilities and potentials; 5-The importance of the network of partnerships; 6-The importance of participatory methodologies; 7-Strategies for mobilization and loyalty of participants; 8-Indicators and results; 9-Testimonials from participants; 10-Evaluation and suggestions for improvement.
The project will have visibility through the ARM website, social networks and partners, which will dessiminate the process with photography, video and information content, and testimonials from participants.
With tangible products, we seek to encourage the dissemination of this initiative, to be replicated in any context that brings together a set of partner organisations with maturity and solid implementation in their community. It is a long-term solution: the equipment has great longevity and low maintenance. At the same time, the ownership of the place influences the way in which the care and responsibility of each one can represent the solution for a quality public space.
Appropriate methodologies are used to motivate, based on the identified needs: social support, recreational, artistic, cultural or ecological. Creating attractive activities for each group helps to find common interests, often latent or lacking social democratic space to share your voice and individual interests.
We wish to create activities that meet the specificities of the territory. Example: most of the children in the nursery are migrants, and do not have the physical presence of their grandparents; most of the seniors in the Day Centre are very isolated, and if they have family members, they no longer maintain close relationships. Bringing these two groups together can result in a very favourable emotional commitment.
Social projects have an impact on social and governmental decision-making, the methodology involves creating a favourable environment for the development of the territory's potential, through bottom-up processes, social mobilisation and collective action. Structural change starts from a social, local and community base, activating a territorial network and social energy - created around the epicentre of the project (the composter) - which will enable the management of the network by the community, achieving one of the objectives outlined: the self-management and sustainability of the project. With permanent evaluation of the project, through monitoring and follow-up actions, which allow measuring the effects and impacts before, during and after, and readjusting procedures that produce results and generate positive impact. Knowing that a project is never done by a single person/entity in isolation, all moments of self-evaluation also make it possible to ensure effective communication, to strengthen the work of a multidisciplinary team and the cohesion of the different stakeholders.
With an intervention focused on a specific area of the territory, the whole programme is based on collaborative and participative methodologies with a focus on human rights. Activities are developed in groups (forums, workshops, etc.) or in pairs: children/older people; students/teachers; students/parents; etc.
With language based on active listening and non-violent communication using the concept, benefit and ways of developing emotional intelligence and empathy, at individual, group and community level. It is intended that participants understand the applicability at work of the Braving to Trust model in their work with colleagues and in the beneficiary community, supervised by ARM technicians, namely intercultural mediators, in intercultural dimensions, diversity management tools and resolution of possible conflicts in multicultural organisations and communities.
We believe that social transformations start from small-scale design. Urban acupuncture that produces good examples provides the belief and motivation for individual participation: "I can make a difference!". The current climate crisis is no longer seen as a mirage, we are all already feeling its impact on our skin. Also the threats to democratic, inclusive and peaceful societies are growing all over the world, even at the level of the most developed countries. The moment of crisis that humanity and the planet are going through requires creative solutions for community engagement to face the immensity of the problems at hand. Bringing different generations and cultures together is the transformative key to producing significant social impact. Local production of natural fertilisers and food represents a reduction of costs in normal waste treatment and environmental footprint, reducing imports of chemical fertilisers and processed and packaged food and the consequent ecological footprint. The pedagogical station and gardens produce food and communities are more aware of the importance of local production and self-subsistence. Urban agriculture is one of the keys to socio-environmental transformation: neighbourhood | city | planet.
Being a project designed to be replicated, the local impact reaches a global scale dimension, meeting the SDGs: 10 - Reducing inequalities; 11 - Sustainable cities and communities; 12 - Sustainable production and consumption; 13 - Climate action; and 17 - Partnerships for the implementation of the goals.
In 2022, ARM received the Caixa Social Award in the category of Green Economy and Ecological Transition, in the amount of 20,000€, to start this project. At this time, we are seeking new awards and support to implement the entire project, given the high price of composting equipment. The work of mediation and community participation is already underway and it is now crucial to acquire the equipment, as it will be a boosting step for community participation, due to its innovative and differentiating character.
The design of the pedagogical station is being developed and its implementation will be concluded in July. After and during the creation of the green structures, with workshops on carpentry and joinery, permaculture and team management, where participants will gain skills in these areas, in parallel with awareness-raising activities, strategies will be applied to retain participants with innovative methodologies, namely the composting centre, which due to its technological nature may represent a strong appeal to the participation of young people considering their interest in the use of technologies.
The continuity of the intervention is ensured by the strong partnership and the proximity to the site enables a constant supervision. The impact on the beneficiaries, direct and indirect, is measured by the increase in well-being and environmental awareness, the increase in the number of intersectoral and intergenerational meetings, and the cleanliness of the space verified during project evaluation.
Indicators: 1 electromechanical composting centre | 1 Pedagogical Station | 5 vertical vegetable gardens | 864 kg/week of waste transformed into compost | 34,560 kg/ 40 weeks transformed into compost | 40 socio-environmental awareness-raising activities and carpentry and horticulture workshops | 160 hours of intercultural community mediation | 360 donors of organic waste | 1 digital manual Good Practices Manual for replication of the pilot (PT/ENG).
The activities developed with schools and teachers (as well as with parents and school staff), at the level of non-formal and formal education, will have a significant impact. There are consistent links between the activities and the school curricula themselves, which will be interlinked with the Changing (H)Earth project, the agro-forest at Gil Vicente School, which hosts many children and young people from Mouraria. In this project, we work with the whole school community with a theoretical and practical approach through experiential dynamics, having the contents covering all the study areas, from Mathematics: measures, volumetry, planning and design of spaces, organization and treatment of statistical data; to Biology: ecosystem characterisation, pollution, deforestation, fires and biological invasions, renewable resources, waste and water management with the promotion of sustainable development, individual and community health, the importance of chemical synthesis in the production of new and better materials, in a more economical and ecological way; amongst other areas of study. All contents are likely to be worked on within extra-curricular and multidisciplinary activities. The transition to a green economy is the basis of Mouraria Composta project and we believe that the cohesion between all stakeholders - the community, schools, and public and private partnerships - is the strongest message we can send. A practical project, of local action, where participants are called to make a difference is the best example that can be given to encourage large-scale transformations, but, above all to change ways of life and public policies.
