To celebrate World Environment Day, celebrated today (5), RioSolidário, the state’s social work, organized an event with a music band, solid waste recycling machines, an environmental police exhibition and a cleaning effort at Aterro do Flamengo , in the south of Rio de Janeiro.
At the end of the sunny morning, but cold by carioca standards, the Military Police Band, the Campos Eliseos Youth Symphonic Band and the Tubonic Orchestra performed, in which the young participants play instruments made with recycled materials, such as plastic and PVC.
The president of RioSolidário, Heloisa Aguiar, explained that the action integrates solidarity and environmental awareness, to bring joy to the population.
“It is a globally celebrated date and we need to be very attentive to it, so that we can think about selective collection, the correct disposal of garbage, so that we can each do our part and avoid climate catastrophes like us. had three months ago in the city of Petrópolis.”
Storms that occurred in the city in the mountain region of Rio de Janeiro in February and March this year left more than 240 dead.
Environmental Police
The state’s Environmental Policing Command also participated in the event, with an exhibition of taxidermized animals, snakes preserved in formaldehyde and seized illegal hunting and fishing material, such as traps and shotguns.
Retired Sandra Luzia Miranda Rodrigues usually goes for walks in Aterro do Flamengo and was delighted with the stuffed animals.
“I came walking and saw it, it’s beautiful, right? It’s something different, interesting, sensational. It’s to preserve and not to destroy, right? The event is wonderful, it was very sad, the world is getting better now, you know, coming back to life”.
Recycling
The action made available the recycling machines of the Instituto Fecomércio de Sustentabilidade (IFeS), in which it is possible to correctly dispose of plastic bottles and caps, glass bottles, light bulbs, batteries and electronic materials.
The executive director of IFeS, Vinicius Crespo, explains that the institute was launched in December last year and, since then, the machines located at Fecomércio’s headquarters, at Rua Marquês de Abrantes 99, in Flamengo, have already collected more than 12 thousand PET bottles and over 1 ton of e-waste.
“It is a way of engaging and bringing the population to know the correct disposal of waste. So we brought one of our machines from the RePET program, which receives caps and PET bottles and is intended for collectors’ cooperatives. Light bulbs contain mercury in their composition. One of electronics, batteries and the other of glass, which crushes the glass and also prevents it from going to the illegal market of piracy of drinks”, he explained.
According to Crespo, all the material collected is passed on to recycling cooperatives. For now, only Fecomércio’s headquarters in Flamengo have the machines to receive recyclable material from the population. But the director adds that, starting next month, they will also be installed in Sesc units in Niterói and Campo Grande, reaching 20 units by the end of the year and rising to 60 in 2023.
Botanical Garden
Another initiative that marked the World Environment Day in Rio de Janeiro was the children’s activities programmed by the Botanical Garden.
In the morning, the little ones who visited the arboretum were able to watch the cartoon The Guardians of the Biosphere, which presents the characteristics of Brazilian fauna and flora to sensitize children about the importance of environmental preservation and respect for nature.
There was also a workshop on masks for wild animals from the Atlantic Forest and a guided tour of the Arboretum of the Botanical Garden with the theme “Caminho da Mata Atlântica”, with observation of the native species of the biome.
