Team:UNESP Brazil/Sustainable
OVERVIEW
The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are part of the 2030 Agenda, a set of 17 aims outlined by the United Nations (UN) focused on solving social problems at the global level. Our project encompasses a wide range of goals, with a robust social and environmental bias in its idealization and development.
Among them, the following stand out: (3) Good health and well-being, directly impacting the development of a technology that can become a more accurate form of diagnosis; (8) Decent work and economic growth, by promoting a reduction in the emission of pollutants and creating more sustainable technologies, the impact also reflects on decent work and economic development; (9) Industry, innovation and infrastructure, being a new technology, it is also an example of innovation; (12) Responsible consumption and production, its potential to reduce silicon extraction can lead to a substantial impact towards sustainable management; (13) Climate action, in addition to being able to serve as a foundation for a new technology that is less dependent on silicon, our team collected more than 110 kg of electronic waste that will now be disposed of accordingly; (14) Life below water, e-waste has heavy metals in its composition, which contaminate water and directly impact local marine life; (15) Life on land is also affected by inadequate e-waste disposal, which can cause several health problems in the vicinity of contaminated sites, whether animals or human beings.
Through our project, we could get in touch with all these issues, understanding their importance. Therefore, we believe that it would be essential to take everything we have learned to society and, at the same time, do something that would have a positive impact to achieve these goals. Then, we decided to carry out an e-waste collection campaign between the 15th and 24th of September.
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AWARENESS WEEK
Our team had a great desire to put into practice everything we could learn in theory about recycling e-waste, in addition to being able to contribute to reducing the impact that incorrect disposal could have. Then came the idea of carrying out a social action in the form of an awareness-raising week on the subject in partnership with the Jornada Farmacêutica da Unesp (JFU - Unesp's Pharmaceutical Journey).
We got in touch with Cooperativa Acácia, a cooperative of 180 recyclable material collectors whose core value is sustainability, and with the Hospital Psiquiátrico Espírita Cairbar Schutel (CASA Cairbar - Cairbar Schutel Psychiatric Hospital), which uses e-waste recycling as a means of social reintegration of patients. With their help, we were able to organize more than 10 collection points in the city of Araraquara for the collection of e-waste and also a drive-thru with the same objective. Considering the pandemic scenario, we saw these two methods as being the best ones to accomplish our idea and the distancing norms.
For the collection points, our team, together with the JFU, created and distributed posters containing the objects that would be accepted and we also placed the collection boxes. The drive-thru took place at the UNESP Chemistry Institute, and we gathered some members of both groups to carry out the activity. To publicize this social action we talked to local radios and newspapers, schools, and stores, in addition to virtual dissemination through social networks of other groups at the college.
The collection points were available from September 15th to 24th, after this period, Cooperativa Acácia and CASA Cairbar collected the objects for recycling. The drive-thru was carried out for 5 hours, obtaining more than 110 kg of e-waste - among them, objects that were at least 20 years old -, and all of the items were also collected by the Cooperative and CASA.
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