Strategies for pollution control in tanneries located in Minas Gerais State, Brazil case study

This paper presents the planning and initial results of an environmental project for pollution control in tanneries located in Minas Gerais State, Brazil. The planning comprises three phases: i) diagnosis of the industrial sector, ii) training of human resources, and iii) technological development. The project has an estimated cost of US$ 220,000, and it is being developed by the Department of Sanitary and Environmental Engineering of the Federal University of Minas Gerais, in cooperation with representatives of the industrial and environmental sectors. The project is also supported by the German Agency GTZ (Deutsche Gesellschaft fur Technische Zusammenarbeit). The first results indicated that the project is achieving its aims of getting to know the situation and helping to solve the problems related to the tannery industry. Furthermore, the structure of the project, based on the participation of representatives of the various institutions concerned with the productive and environmental sectors, has shown to be a good start of a joint mobilization. Copyright (C) 1996 IAWQ. Published by Elsevier Science Ltd.