The role of urban agriculture in urban organic waste composting and household waste management habits: the case of Florianópolis, Brazil

The future of urban sustainability is affected by the consequences of urban population growth. This is particularly reflected in the most vulnerable parts of the new urban societies, in terms of food security and increased pressure on the waste management systems. New forms of urban food provision that support fragile communities’ food security and their socio-cultural empowerment like Urban Agriculture (UA), are emerging. Furthermore, literature shows that UA could support the management of Organic Wastes (OW) produced in households, food markets, and along the food chain. Literature reports several benefits derived from the UA and OW relation, in terms of fertilizer provision and correct waste disposal. However, little has been discussed on how these aspects are related in terms of citizens’ waste management habits. In this perspective, the city of Florianópolis in Brazil, is promoting new strategies of OW valorization through UA thanks to the new Florianópolis Composting Law (FCL). To this end, the present thesis addresses two main aspects related to: i) the urban stakeholders’ acceptance of the FCL; ii) assessing the influence of UA participation on citizens’ OW management habits. The results showed that the FCL can potentially satisfy several aspects related to the correct OW disposal and UA soil fertility issues and UA participants are more likely to separate their OW from other wastes and self-treat their OW in their household. From the results two main conclusions emerged: i) the decentralized OW management model proposed in the FCL, can significantly contribute to fragile communities’ empowerment; ii) The contribution of UA to OW management emerged both from a citizens’ awareness perspective and a public system workload reduction. Finally, the FCL model could be an example of good practices for other cities in the Latin American area where UA is becoming particularly relevant and recognized at the institutional level.