Innovative social business of selective waste collection in Brazil: Cleaner production and poverty reduction

Abstract

In Brazil, municipal solid waste management (MSWM) faces several challenges in its transition from a waste disposal model to another based on selective collection with recycling and reuse. Each municipality has adopted different institutional arrangements to meet the responsibility shared by the State, industries, and consumers to operate public policies in this field. The consequence has been an inefficient recycling rate, high costs, and the exclusion of waste collectors from the official system. Therefore, the objectives of this study are as follows: (i) to submit a sustainable institutional arrangement based on cooperation between agents, with an intensive use of information technology and logistics and (ii) to assess the economic-financial feasibility of the model. The research method was based on a multilevel, interdisciplinary and systemic analytical structure for the study of path-dependent processes, proposed by Hoff (2011), associated to critical moment identification approach from Collier & Collier (1991). In addition, an economic valuation model based on discounted cash flow was used. The path dependence analysis reveals the following determinants of this situation: recent legislation; the existence of socially excluded collectors; contractual formats in public-private partnerships; and the need to raise citizens' awareness of their co-responsibility regarding environmental education.In this scenario, the alternative found by the actors is a social business that is inclusive for those at the Bottom of the Pyramid (BoP) and decentralised in micro-cooperatives with different forms of relationship with public authorities. Different from what the experiments indicate, the economic and financial viability of the model, in addition to the environmental, social, and legal benefits, are confirmed.