Economía circular y gestión de residuos en Guayaquil

Abstract

The transition to a more sustainable society is a complex task. The depletion of natural resources and the generation of both solid and liquid waste cannot be sustained indefinitely, that is, as waste increases, local landfills continue to grow, sewage treatment plants overwork to remove fats and oils and the availability of land is reduced. Important contributors to the waste stream are plastics and burnt cooking oil. However, knowledge about the quantification, characterization and management of this post-consumer waste is poor in the country, and there is a lack of efficiency in collecting and classifying it. It is recognized that people are the largest generators of waste and it is a necessary condition to develop good attitudes and pro-environmental behaviors. For this, having an idea about the political ideology that moves people is a first step in the development of bills. This paper offers three studies related to the points discussed above. The first of them analyzes the recycling process of expanded polystyrene and its environmental impacts. The second studies the relationship between political ideology and pro-environmental attitudes and behaviors, and finally the last work offers a quantification, georeferencing, and modeling of the oil burned from cooking in houses in the city of Guayaquil. Additionally, this thesis provides an extended summary in Annex 1 and a total of 15 appendices that represent all the work carried out during the years of this doctorate