Avaliação de ciclo de vida do azeite de oliva na região sul do Brasil.

Abstract

The olive culture is a millenary economic activity widely spread thru many regions worldwide including Brazil. Within Rio Grande do Sul State there is a new wave of enterprises in this activity accounting over 1700 hectares of olives grooves. Although this activity is deemed to low potential to environment damages some aspects deserve attention because of its intensity: Usage of agrochemicals, consumption of natural resources, solid waste generation such as wet olive pomace and residues of pruning. It is important to highlight that, to the moment, there are not researches developed in Brazil that quantify the amount of residues and environmental impacts of olive culture. This research uses life cycle analysis as a tool to identify the main hot spots using the Simapro software and Ecoinvent database. Inventories were prepared for each link of chain which made possible to list the quantities of materials and wastes generated at the company Prosperato which is partner in this research. The next step was the characterization and normalization in order to identify main findings on each link. The groove management was the most important link in terms of environmental impacts highlighting the categories: agricultural land occupation, metal depletion and human toxicity. Those categories are linked to land occupation, to expressive amounts of fertilizers applied, especially triple super phosphate and to the agrochemicals. Regarding to solid wastes researched in each link, it is possible to say that they did not represent any important concerns. However the wet olive pomace should be considered for future researches concerning to the amount generated through the process.