Metodologia de avaliação das práticas de gerenciamento ambiental dos resíduos de empresas de beneficiamento de rochas ornamentais

Abstract

The state of Espírito Santo is the number one in Brazil regarding ornamental stones extraction and processing. This activity generates not only economic profit, but also a problem of residues generation and final disposal. Some residues generated from the processing of ornamental stones are: sludge, abrasive pad and pieces of marble and granite from the cut process; knowing that the sludge represents most part of it. According to the demands from environmental organizations, society, and also from the market, the companies are adapting their processes to the principles of the environmental sustainability applied to the residues management. The present work describes a collection of data (bibliography, documents and field data) that make possible to know the real management actions done by these companies. It also proposes a method to evaluate the residues management in the companies, based on sustainable practices from the references selected during this research. The results show that the companies have already some concerns about sustainable management of the residues (50% to 57% of them wereconsidered as sustainable according to the applied method), although the companies of the state of Espirito Santo, in general, are still in an adaptation process to this reality. It is necessary that the good practices are adopted by all companies.