Urban Solid Waste Management in Brazil: Overview, Concepts, Applications, and Prospects

The management of heavy waste is currently a matter of great concern for public managers in Brazilian municipalities, as generation increases every day. The actions related to prevention, collection, disposal, and reuse, they were treated sectorally, in an inarticulate manner, preventing a systemic view of the problem and reflecting on fragmented public policies.

In Brazil, most municipalities do not have the technical conditions, operational and financial infrastructure to solve solid waste problems. However, with the institutionalization of the National Solid Waste Politics (known in Brazil by the Portuguese acronym, PNRS), Law n. 12.305 of 2010, no municipality can have its consumed waste deposited in the air or controlled air dumps since August, 2014.

Municipal managers and other sectors of the economy, and consumers must participate in a shared way in the management and management process. The PNRS guides the adoption of a reduction, reuse and treatment hierarchy, and thus, after all the treatment possibilities and inexistent economically viable technologies or recycling processes for their reconfiguration for new uses are exhausted, the waste and the waste must be discarded landfills safely.

Municipalities are-own and implement the Municipal Plan for Integrated Solid Waste Management (known in Brazil by the Portuguese acronym, PMGIRS), which is a condition for access to federal government resources. In addition, public waste management policies should offer the opportunity to include trainers and information, without the cement process, through cooperatives or analyzes formed by waste pickers.

The book results from the development of a doctoral dissertation in Natural Resources. The idea of publishing it as a book arose from the difficulty of obtaining a bibliography on this topic, of growing importance worldwide and of great interest to Brazilian society.

A text underwent minor changes to obtain a less technical language that reached a multidisciplinary audience regarding the problem of waste. As developed content was oriented to cover the themes used in waste management and is limited to the environmental management instruments provided for in the PNRS, which were used systematically.