Denise da Silva Mota Carvalho

This research presents as its central theme the generation of organic waste resulting from food losses and waste (PDA). In this sense, from reflections raised during the dissertation, this work intends to answer how the Circular Economy (CE) precepts can contribute to the reduction, destination and recovery of food waste. Thus, the objective of the research is to analyze the evolution of the generation of organic waste arising from losses and waste of fruits, vegetables and vegetables (FLV), at CEASA - CURITIBA in the period from 2013 to 2020, seeking to identify the destinations of waste and initiatives for EC. Therefore, the specific objectives of the study are to analyze the adaptation of the main methodologies for analyzing PDA; then, analyze the volume of PDA at the wholesale unit, evaluating the evolution of the destination and reuse of FLV waste. The research approached a case study methodology through the selection and descriptive analysis of primary data. It was identified that the volume of PDA from CEASA – CURITIBA was an average of 13,403.93 tons per year, representing 1.86% of the volume sold. The generation of organic waste from FLV makes up 85.82% of PDA's total, the rest is destined for the food bank. In the analysis of the applicability of the methods, it was found that the methodology of the Food Recovery Hierarchy (HRA), given the necessary adaptations, met the proposed objectives. For this, it was decided to create an HRAI indicator that allows observing the evolution of the set of destinations over the period, assigning weights from 1 to 6 to destinations according to HRA levels, with weight 1 being the least desirable destination level and level 6 the most desirable. The lowest value, therefore, the least desirable, would be HRAI of 0.0476, with the most desirable HRAI being 0.2857. The lowest HRAI value found in the series was 0.0348 in 2017, the year in which the landfill accounted for 57% of PDA waste disposal. The last two years of the series show an increasing behavior of the index, reaching in 2020 HRAI of 0.1785. With these results, it was found that CEASA – Curitiba, over the period analyzed, increased the volume for disposal with a higher hierarchy for the recovery of food waste with Circular Economy initiatives.