Solid waste policy in Brazil: learnings and challenges after a decade of implementation

Abstract

The Brazilian National Solid Waste Policy (NSWP) was established in 2010. This article evaluates the NSWP influence on generation, collection, sorting and treatment of household solid waste (HSW), healthcare solid waste and construction and demolition (C&D) solid waste. We evaluated, by a segmented regression analysis, whether Brazilian per capita HSW generation changed after the NSWP. We found a statistical rupture on HSW generation rate, which decreased from 2012 to 2017. In contrast, more than 65% of HSW were disposed of in landfill in the last years, exceeding 80% in 2017, and there was a low efficacy of solid waste sorting at household level. The disposal of about 50% of the healthcare solid waste and 70% of the C&D solid waste are unknown. The solid waste management in Brazil has not shown optimistic advances in recent years despite the existence of the NSWP.