ENVIRONMENTAL AWARENESS TO MITIGATE SOLID WASTE: THE VELADERO NATIONAL PARK, ACAPULCO, MEXICO

The global trend is the concentration of populations in urbanized cities, where there are greater challenges to solve urban, environmental and governance problems, caused by increasing urbanization. An example is the municipality of Acapulco de Juarez, recognized as the first international tourist destination in Mexico, which in 1900 had 16,990 inhabitants and according to the last census in 2015, population growth is 810 669 inhabitants, that is, the territory has more than 793 679 inhabitants. The tourist destination Acapulco suffers from various economic and socio-environmental problems such as: irregular human settlements that lead to environmental deterioration due to the overexploitation of natural resources, as well as various environmental impacts due to the inadequate management of urban solid waste. The social, economic and environmental problem extends throughout the territory, reaching the Protected Natural Area, with the category of the Veladero National Park, which geographically surrounds a large part of the urban area of Acapulco, recognized as the natural lung of the tourist destination. The objective was to determine the generation and characterization of Urban Solid Waste (MSW) deposited by visitors to generate strategies for their management, control and use, achieving environmental awareness to the local population to conserve the environment. The methodology is dictated by the Official Mexican Standards: NMX-AA, -61-1985, NMX-AA-15-198, NMX-AA-19-1985 and NMX-AA-22-1985 allowing the determination of the quantity, composition, by-product characterization and determination of volumetric weight of the MSW, the sites identified with the greatest amount of waste were georeferenced, key actors interviews were applied and finally, with the support in the information obtained, a participatory workshop was designed and applied to the local population , where the current environmental problem was diagnosed, allowing the community to recognize alternatives for the use and mitigation of environmental problems. As a finding, the average daily volumetric weight was 205.7 Kg/m3, during the Holy Week holiday season of 2019, identifying 5 open-air dumps, finally, based on the results proposals were generated to reduce the causes and effects of degradation of natural resources, generating alternatives for environmental awareness and solid waste management aimed at the local population to minimize the impacts of waste in the national park.