Analysis of the Solid Urban Waste Management Profile in Brazilian Municipalities

Abstract

The management of urban solid waste (USWM) brings in its core, techniques, guidelines and standards to ensure the sustainability of the processes of generation, collection, reuse and disposal of waste. Since the 70s, the processes involving the USWM have undergone changes influenced by the behaviour of the generator, consumption patterns, impacts on the environment and by economic, political and social transformations. Although the need to reinsert waste into the production chain seems to be a consensus, scientific investigations point to clear regional differences in terms of management direction. As a result, this reveals a scenario composed of regions that managed to adhere to the principles of circular waste management, and others, especially those of medium and low income, which were able to neutralise problems inherent to the primary processes of management, such as collection and final disposal. Factors such as technical and financial capacity, legislation, regulation/inspection and the involvement of society in the discussions and deliberations related to the waste sector, have also been pointed out by the literature as determining the dimension of the advance or delay of the USWM. In this sense, the analysis of the different performances of the USWM of the countries, states, and/or municipalities and the identification of the factors that provoke this differentiation, are essential to point out, what the challenges and perspectives for promoting the advancement of the USWM are, according to the investigated local reality. The present research is descriptive and exploratory and has a general objective: to analyse the profile of the USWM of 786 Brazilian municipalities regarding the waste collection process and the adequacy of municipalities with the National Solid Waste Policy-NSWP (Law 12.305/ 2010), and discuss possible external factors of influence. The year evaluated corresponds to 2018 and the empirical analyses involved the municipalities which have all the model variables available in the National Sanitation Information System-SNIS base. For the optimisation of the investigation, the cities were classified into clusters according to the population, and the analyses were parameterised by 8 qualitative variables (Type of Management, Payment of the Generator, Municipal Waste Plan, Social Control, Regulation/Inspection Sector, Selective Collection, Cooperatives/Associations and Final Disposal System), and by 5 quantitative variables (Collection Expenses, Number of Employees, Number of Vehicles, Volume of Solid Urban Waste Collected and Population Served). To perceive possible influences of external factors in the USWM, analyses of the municipalities were carried out at regional level, using 8 socioeconomic indicators, called exogenous variables: Municipal Human Development Index (MHDI), MHDI-Income, Population, Density Demographic, Gross Domestic Product per capita, Income per capita, Percentage of hospitalisations because of diseases related to inadequate sanitation, and Percentage of people of 25 years of age or older with a college degree. Data from the municipalities were extracted from the following Brazilian electronic platforms: SNIS (2019), Instituto Brasileiro de Geografia e Estatística-IBGE (2010; 2017) and Atlas Brasil (2010, 2017), and the theoretical foundation was supported by international scientific references and Brazilians. The analyses carried out made it possible to achieve the following specific objectives: i. present the status of the municipal solid waste collection process in order to provide input for future analysis of the USWM efficiency; ii. verify the adherence of municipalities to the guidelines of Law 12.305/2010; iii. make inferences about the magnitude of the analysis variables in the municipalities by Population Class, by Management Type and by Payment of the Generator; iv. present and discuss the profile of municipalities at regional level and v. identify the municipalities with greater adherence to the legislation's criteria, discussing the influence of external factors. Cluster analysis showed a greater tendency to suit the USWM in municipalities belonging to the largest population groups: (100.000 to 500.000 inhabitants) and (>500.000 inhabitants). The Autarchy and the Mixed Economy Society stood out as management models with a greater tendency towards adequacy and the payment of the generator is also suggested as an influencing variable for the adequacy of the USWM. Of the total number of municipalities evaluated, only 5,6% or 44 showed greater alignment with the NSWP guidelines, having the following profile: 91% are located in the most developed regions of the country (South and Southeast); have an average GDP higher than the national average; have a high degree of MHDI, being among the 200 Brazilian municipalities with the highest MHDI; have a very high degree of MHDI-Income, being among the 120 municipalities with the highest MHDI.