Developing an applicable educational material in social and environmental themes: an approach linked to tourism professionals

Abstract

Despite a constant concern for the environment, where there is daily talk about sustainability, there is a contradiction, where the incorrect discarding of vegetable or animal oil from fried foods, both in the residential and commercial fields, is seen directly in the sewage, soil and even garbage. The consequences of these acts are several problems, such as the clogging of pipes, waterproofing of the soil, increasing treatment in the sewage network, among others. The main objective of this work was to develop an educational material focused on the environmental theme, focusing on the tourism professionals, elaborating, also discussed the importance and applicability of Reverse Logistics to the problem of incorrect disposal of used cooking oil, as well as its impact on the environment, through the application of a questionnaire, which aimed to establish a perception of the participants of the research in relation to the consequences, offering a real view on the disposal of this solid waste. However, there is so much discussion on the subject in schools, universities and the media, during the application of the questionnaire, it was verified that not all the interviewees knew the correct way of discarding and also their harm to the environment. The questionnaire was applied in two hotels, both in the municipality of Maceió, were 19 participants of the research, being 10 employees of a Resort and nine employees of a Hotel. For the proper evaluation of the results, the employees of the hotels were divided into two groups, appointed as employees of the general services and administrative employees, the first consisting of general service employees, kitchen staff and reception staff and the second group composed of chefs in charge of kitchen and hotel management. In the first group, most of the answers were "yes", revealing that they had knowledge about the questions related to the use and disposal of cooking oil, where they showed interest in the development of a primer on teaching of the proper disposal of the oil, as well as what can be done with this residue already used.