Residus sòlids agro-urbanos d'hivernacles en terrats en el marc de l'economia circular: estratègies d'eco-disseny per al seu ús
- Autores: Ana María Manríquez Altamirano
- Directores de la Tesis: Xavier Gabarrell Durany (dir. tes.), Pere Muñoz Odina (codir. tes.), Jorge Sierra Pérez (codir. tes.)
- Lectura: En la Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona ( España ) en 2020
- Idioma: español
- Tribunal Calificador de la Tesis: Francisco Javier Peña Andrés (presid.), Carlos Martínez Gasol (secret.), Juan Ignacio Montero Camacho (voc.)
- Programa de doctorado: Programa de Doctorado en Ciencia y Tecnología Ambientales por la Universidad Autónoma de Barcelona
- Materias:
- Enlaces
- Tesis en acceso abierto en: TDX
- Resumen
Urban agriculture (UA) is constantly growing due to the multiple benefits it offers in addition to reducing the environmental impact related to the transport of food from outside to inside cities.
Following the circular economy (CE) initiative, there are currently studies to improve environmental performance and efficiency in the use of AU resources by taking advantage of flows of water, nutrients and gases, as in the case of rooftop greenhouses (RTGs).
However, the flow of agro-urban solid waste (AUSW), which represents a new type of waste within cities, has not yet been fully studied for its use. Nor have they been clearly classified within the waste managed at the municipal level, which in the future could represent a new problem for the waste management system within cities.
The general objective of this dissertation is to identify what type of AUSW has the potential to be used in situ to continue with the benefits provided by the UA and generate application concepts for waste through an interdisciplinary methodology based on eco-design for the generation of an eco-material with added value (upcycling) through techniques of "Do it yourself (DIY)".
The foregoing using RTG tomato crops with soilless fertigation system as a case study. In addition, in this way it is intended to make visible a new typology of waste by providing data that serve as a guide to propose guidelines and management regulations at the local level.
The results of the research show that organic solid waste (OSW) or biomass, is the most critical fraction regarding the volume and timing of its generation, particularly tomato stems. Furthermore, according to the future growth scenario of the AU, the projected increase in OSW volume within cities could be 20% by 2030.
Two experimental lettuce crops were carried out using tomato stems as substrate in RTG to identify the viability of this form of use in situ to close the UA cycle.
Following the methodology used, the physical, chemical and mechanical characterization of the tomato stems was carried out. Materials with similar characteristics were identified, in order to identify possible areas of application for the use of the stems using the Ashby method. It was determined that the stems of the tomato plants are similar to the family of wood-type materials and in this way possible processing techniques and areas of application were identified.
Later, a creative session was held with specialists in the areas of UA, product design, eco-materials, and alternative materials for construction. 3 concepts were generated resulting from viable applications for the use of the stems. These concepts were qualitatively evaluated by the participants and finally a semi-quantitative evaluation of the resulting concepts was carried out.
In this way, it was determined that the methodology proposed from the CE approach is useful to identify viable applications for the upcycling of AUSW locally using DIY techniques. This is due in large part to the “creative nature” of eco-design, which allows adapting the methodology to different contexts, so that global problems can be solved starting from the local scale. In addition, this study provides data on the characterization of tomato stems, which are also applicable for the use of waste generated by conventional agriculture considering the large volume it generates.
