217 Science Highlights - Thematic Area 4 | 4 MANAGEMENT OF THE PRODUCTION OF SOLID WASTES OF THE COMANDANTE FERRAZ BRAZILIAN ANTARCTIC BASE Anderson Buss Woelffel 1,* , Cristina Engel de Alvarez 1 1 Universidade Federal do Espírito Santos – UFES, Vitória, ES, Brazil *e-mail: andersonbwarquiteto@gmail.com Abstract: Since 2001, specifc studies on the subject of solid wastes produced at the Comandante Ferraz Brazilian Antarctic Base (EACF) have been carried out in order to characterise, quantify and identify the overall production of solid wastes in several activities performed in that Antarctic station. In 2006 a new spreadsheet to control the wastes was adopted in order to optimize the monitoring task, from the initial collection to fnal storage. Tus, this study is aimed at assessing the annual production of solid wastes, specifcally from January 2009 to March 2010, and researching signifcant potential changes in the waste quantities afer application of the new spreadsheet, based on the values of the production from 2001 to 2008 (historic series). Methodologically, the past results of production of wastes of the EACF and the data of current situation supplied by SECIRM were analyzed. From the results, a general increase of the solid wastes documented from 2006 was noted, refecting improvement in procedures in the identifcation and quantifcation of waste generated at EACF. Tis increase is concurrent to two factors afecting the fnal production of waste: the early studies of the EACF Revitalization Program and the increase of the number of users at the station. Keywords: solid residues, waste, Antarctica, environmental monitoring Introduction Since the establishment of the Comandante Ferraz Brazilian Antarctic Base (Lat. = 62° 05’ S and Long. = 58° 24’ W), mark of Brazilian presence in Antarctica, the concern with the destination of the solid wastes produced through the undertaking of a number of local activities has been constant in the scope of the Brazilian Antarctic Program (PROANTAR, acronym in Portuguese) and have encouraged initiatives in order to cause minimal environmental impact as a consequence of Brazilian occupancy on that continent (Alvarez et al., 2006). With the advent of the Madrid Protocol (1991), which in its Appendix 3 deals with the issue of solid waste by advocating that all garbage should be removed from area of the Antarctic Treaty, the practices previously developed were renewed. Nevertheless, little was known about the production quantities and some more specific waste categories were clustered into related categories, which made their correct management difcult. Since 2001, with the goal to fill that information gap, specifc studies on the issue of solid wastes at the Comandante Ferraz Brazilian Antarctic Base have been undertaken, aiming mainly to characterise, quantify and identify the general production of wastes related to the several activities developed at the EACF. In 2006/2007, further studies focused on the waste generated by the activities of production and consumption of food (Alvarez et al., 2007a); and in the summer 2007/2008, all the waste management process was investigated, from the initial collection to fnal storage. http://dx.doi.org/10.4322/apa.2014.053