EVOLUTION OF MSW DISPOSAL IN ZONA DA MATA, MINAS GERAIS STATE, BRAZIL

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1 EVOLUTION OF MSW DISPOSAL IN ZONA DA MATA, MINAS GERAIS STATE, BRAZIL E. A. G. MARQUES*, L. C. R ANDRADE*, A. A. P. T. BUSELLI*I. C. D. AZEVEDO*, R. AZEVEDO*, F. P. FONSECA**, T. C. de SOUZA**, I. A. BARBOSA** * Civil Engineering Departament, Federal University of Viçosa, Campus Universitário, Viçosa, , MG, Brazil **Minas Gerais Environmental State Foundation (FEAM), Cidade Administrativa, Rodovia Prefeito Américo Gianetti, s/n Bairro Serra Verde, Belo Horizonte, , MG, Brazil SUMMARY: The region of Zona da Mata, located at the southeastern of the state of Minas Gerais, in Brazil, comprises 162 municipalities, from which 48 operated dumps by the end of On the second semester of 2009, Minas Gerais Environmental State Foundation (FEAM) established a contract with Federal University of Viçosa (UFV) to provide the necessary technical support to the municipalities of Zona da Mata in order to promote and encourage reduction on waste generation, reuse, recycling and proper disposal of solid waste. A total of 47 municipalities agreed to take part of the project sponsored by FEAM and under the responsibility of UFV, in a total of 796,056 inhabittants. The main goal of this project is, by December, 2011, to close 80% of the dumps and dispose 60% of MSW generated in the state in technically adequate and licensed systems. To achieve this goal, the university should provide technical support to these municipalities in order to help then to dispose the waste at environmentally adequate areas. This paper presents the situation of the MSW at Zona da Mata region, two years after the beginning of the contract. In general, the results show an improvement in the number of municipalities disposing adequately their MSW in sanitary landfills, SCPs and controlled landfills. 1. INTRODUCTION The State of Minas Gerais, located at southeastern Brazil, comprises 853 municipalities with a total of inhabitants, corresponding to 10.2% of the Brazilian population. Minas Gerais has the third Gross Domestic Product (GDP), the eleventh per capita GDP among Brazilian States and since 2000 experienced a population growth of 9.1%. Most of the State population, 85.3%, lives in urban areas. Five hundred ninety six municipalities have less than inhabitants and 724 have less than Because of this characteristic, several cities do not have enough economic resources to hire technical expertise to observe environmental regulations. As a consequence, in 2001 the State had only 8 sanitary landfills, 22 separation and composting plants (SCP) and 823 dumps.

2 Since 2001, both federal and state environmental legislation have become more restrictive (COPAM, 2001; COPAM, 2004; COPAM, 2006a; COPAM, 2006b; COPAM, 2008a; COPAM, 2008b; COPAM, 2008c; BRASIL, 2010) and have imposed to the state government and the municipalities to adopt more environmentally appropriate procedures of waste disposal, such as sanitary landfill and/or SPC, and controlled landfills (disposition sites where MSW is compacted and covered with soil, provided with superficial drainage system and where the presence of scavengers is not allowed). From 2004 to 2005 all municipalities in the State of Minas Gerais with dumps were visited and notified by FEAM. As a result, 515 municipalities have signed the Adjustment Conduct Term a legal document in which the municipality assures the intention of recovering degraded areas instead of paying a, sometimes high, fine. To face these challenges and to support the city halls to attend the goals established by the Minas Gerais State Council for Environmental Politics (COPAM), the government of the State of Minas Gerais has created, in 2003, the so-called Solid Waste Structured Project to support municipalities to promote and encourage reduction on waste generation, reuse, recycling and proper disposal of solid waste. However, in spite of a more restrictive legislation and the effort made by FEAM, due to the lack of appropriated expertise mentioned above, until the end of 2007 only minor progress was achieved. Based on these results FEAM realized that the municipalities needed some help in order to accomplish the objective of having 80% of the State population disposing its MSW properly by December, On October, 2009, FEAM established contracts with two federal universities (Federal University of Viçosa and Federal University of Lavras), all located at Minas Gerais, to provide the necessary technical support to the municipalities, in the scope of the Solid Waste Structured Project. Also, a contract between FEAM and Israel Pinheiro Foundation, to visit the municipalities and to monitor the evolution of MSW disposal, was established in August Federal University of Viçosa has been responsible for technical support of municipalities in Zona da Mata, at southeastern of the State of Minas Gerais with a total population of inhabitants. In 2008, there were 56 controlled landfills, 3 sanitary landfills, 3 sanitary landfills with SCP, 41 SCP, 10 municipalities with unknown waste disposal equipment, one municipality disposing outside the State and 48 dumps in the region. The purpose of this paper is to present the situation of the MSW in Zona da Mata, two years after the beginning of the contract, reporting the number of municipalities disposing adequately their MSW in sanitary landfills, SCPs and controlled landfills. 2. METHODOLOGY 2.1. Activities developed in Program Minas Sem Lixões The activities developed were intended to provide technical support to some cities, in order to promote and encourage reduction on waste generation, reuse, recycling and proper disposal of solid waste. The group was formed by researchers and undergraduate and graduate students. Within the actions defined in the contract and in order to achieve, even partially, the targets established, the following activities have been developed: 1. Development, formalization and signing the Commitment Terms between FEAM, Federal University of Viçosa and pre-selected municipalities; 2. Technical assistance to municipalities to meet and maintain the measures required by COPAM

3 in order to eradicate inadequate landfills; 3. Technical support for municipalities to obtain the environmental license for separation and composting plants (SCP); 4. Cadastral register of existing sanitary sewage systems in the municipalities. An additional action - development of civil engineering projects of SCP and sanitary landfills, mainly for consortiums formed by neighboring municipalities was proposed by UFV group to improve results for population attendance, as will be further discussed on Results section (item 4) of the present paper. All these actions were developed throughout technical visits to each SCP or dump areas. As the main purpose of the present paper is to present the results related to activity number 2, the methodology used to develop it is detailed on item Technical support to the municipalities to eradicate dumps To provide technical support to the municipalities to eradicate dumps, the Federal University of Viçosa group developed the following actions: a) First visit to MSW disposal area. b) Preparation of a report describing the first visit and fill in a form of diagnosis, later surrendered to FEAM, with the following information: Location, condition of access and distance to the center of the city; Effectiveness of the mechanisms of access control by preventing the entry of unauthorized persons and animals; The existence of identification plates and signs; The presence of people collecting recyclable material, activity prohibited by law; If the site includes areas with erosions and permanent preservation; If there are water courses and springs at distances less than 300 meters, and populated areas at distances less than 500m; The amount of MSW collected per day; The way of disposing of the waste from health services; If the MSW are regularly covere with soil; If there are disease vectors and smell; If the area is located on top of the hill and with slopes steeper than 30%; If there is a drainage system of rainwater; If ditches and ramps closed are covered and revegetated; If there is selective waste collection in the municipality; If there is an employee technically responsible for the operation in the area. c) Submission of recommendations and requirements from university technical group, based on field observations, to be met by the municipal administration within a established period of time. d) Aditional technical visits to dump area to check the compliance to the recommendations and requirements stablished by the university group; e) Preparation of final report and referral to FEAM. 3. RESULTS E DISCUSSION A total of 47 municipalities has signed the Commitment Term attesting its concordance with the development of the project. Table 1 shows the results of the project by the end of May, 2011 where it can be seen the improvement of waste disposal in Zona da Mata.

4 Table 1 - Situation of waste disposal on May, City Name Urban Population Former Situation Present Situation Acaiaca 2508 Dump Controlled Landfill Além Paraíba Dump Dump Alto Caparaó 3709 Dump Controlled Landfill Alto Jequitibá 4176 Dump Controlled Landfill Alto Rio Doce 4825 Dump Dump Alvinópolis Dump Controlled Landfill Araponga 2784 Dump Controlled Landfill Astolfo Dutra Dump Controlled Landfill 2 Barão de Monte Alto 3823 Dump Controlled Landfill Bicas Dump SCP Carandaí Dump Controlled Landfill Carangola Dump Dump Cataguases Dump Dump 4 Chalé 2643 Dump Controlled Landfill Conceição de Ipanema 1425 Dump Dump Desterro do Melo 1327 Dump Sanitary Landfill 1 & 3 Dona Euzébia 4934 Dump Controlled Landfill 2 Espera Feliz Dump Controlled Landfill Ewbank da Câmara 3307 Dump Controlled Landfill Ipanema Dump SCP Leopoldina Dump Dump Manhuaçu Dump Dump Matias Barbosa 3131 Dump Dump 3 Mercês 6847 Dump Dump Miradouro 5535 Dump Controlled Landfill Paula Cândido 4758 Dump Controlled Landfill Ponte Nova Dump Dump 3 Porto Firme 4888 Dump Controlled Landfill Presidente Bernardes 1568 Dump Controlled Landfill Recreio 9044 Dump Controlled Landfill Reduto 3306 Dump Dump Ressaquinha 2894 Dump Controlled Landfill 3 Rio Pomba Dump Dump Rochedo de Minas 1820 Dump Controlled Landfill Rodeiro 5076 Dump Controlled Landfill 2 Rosário de Limeira 1836 Dump SCP Santana do Manhuaçu 4090 Dump Dump Santos Dumont Dump Sanitary Landfill 1 São Francisco do Glória 3118 Dump Controlled Landfill São Sebastião da Vargem Dump Controlled Landfill 1501 Alegre Senador Cortes 1274 Dump Dump Senhora dos Remédios 3458 Dump Controlled Landfill 3 Sericita 3081 Dump Dump

5 Teixeiras 7558 Dump SCP Tocantins Dump SCP Ubá Dump Dump Viçosa Dump Controlled Landfill 4 1 Sanitary landfill located in other city; Sanitary landfill project ready; Sanitary landfilkl project under development Sanitary landfill in implantation. Figure 1 shows the results based on the number of municipalities, considering the total amount of 47, while Figure 2 shows the results based on total population. Figure 1- Project results in number of municipalities basis. Figure 2 - Project results in total population basis. It can be seen that the project resulted on an improvement of Zona da Mata region waste disposal situation, as 64% of the cities and 41% of the population is now disposing their waste on more environmentally adequate structures. The difference between the results based on the number of municipalities compared to those

6 based on population is attributed to the fact that more populated cities have not solved their waste disposal situation. To help solving this problem, the UFV group proposed to develop civil engineering projects of SCPs and sanitary landfills. As a consequence, nowadays several projects are under development or ready to be executed, as shown on Table 2. The projects will be ready by the end of 2011 and, once built will improve considerably the attended population with adequate waste disposal in Zona da Mata. Table 2 - Projects of landfill or SCP under development. City Situation Attended population Desterro de Melo, Ressaquinha e Senhora dos Remédios Under development Matias Barbosa Under development Ponte Nova Under development Cataguases Project in execution Viçosa Project in execution Astolfo Dutra, Dona Euzébia e Rodeiro Ready The projects listed on Table 2 will be responsible for an increase of 117,056 inhabitants (14.7% of Zona da Mata population) on the number of citizens disposing their waste on environmentally adequate areas. The consortium formed by Desterro de Melo, Ressaquinha and Senhora dos Remédios counts on three additional cities, Barbacena, Carandaí and Alfredo Vasconcelos, which expressed interest in joining the group and are presently providing the signature of the Commitment Term with FEAM. As only two of these cities (Barbacena and Alfredo Vasconcelos) were not considered on Table 1 and Figures 1 and 2, this will increase the total population by and additional 138,764 inhabitants. By the time all the projects are executed, the population that will be disposing MSW in environmentally adequate sites, in relation to the total population of the 47 municipalities that has agreed in participating of this project will reach 86%. This number now, for Zona da Mata population of , is only 40.6%. This is attributed to the following reasons: Several municipalities simply have not shown any interest on developing actions to improve waste disposal conditions. The main reason for that seems to be the lack of conscious of municipalities mayors and staff for the importance of how important the correct disposal of waste can be for the sustainable future of this cities; Several cities already had environmentally adequate disposal systems before the beginning of the project; and Some cities are developing their systems with their own resources or have contracted private companies to do it. Figure 3 shows a map of the present situation on Zona da Mata region.

7 Figure 3- Mapa showing present results of Minas Sem Lixões Project. 4. CONCLUSIONS The work developed by the group of the Civil Engineering Department of Federal University of Viçosa and FEAM resulted on an improvement of the waste disposal situation at Zona da Mata region since 64% of the cities and 41% of the population is now disposing their waste on more

8 environmentally adequate structures. At the moment, there are some projects of landfill or SCP being developed, when all this projects are executed, the total amount of population that will be disposing their waste properly will reach 86%. ACNOWLEDGEMENTS The Authors wish to thank FEAM for the financial support to the development of the technical work. REFERENCES BRASIL (2010) Federal Law - Solid waste Brazilian national policy. Brasília (DF), 22p. COPAM - Minas Gerais State Council for Environmental Politics (2001). Normative Deliberation 52/2001. Belo Horizonte (MG), 4p. COPAM - Minas Gerais State Council for Environmental Politics (2001). Normative Deliberation 75/2004. Belo Horizonte (MG), 1p. COPAM - Minas Gerais State Council for Environmental Politics (2006a). Normative Deliberation 92/2006. Belo Horizonte (MG), 1p. COPAM - Minas Gerais State Council for Environmental Politics (2006b). Normative Deliberation 105/2006. Belo Horizonte (MG), 1p. COPAM - Minas Gerais State Council for Environmental Politics (2008a). Normative Deliberation 118/2008. Belo Horizonte (MG), 8p. COPAM - Minas Gerais State Council for Environmental Politics (2008b). Normative Deliberation 119/2008. Belo Horizonte (MG), 4p. COPAM - Minas Gerais State Council for Environmental Politics (2008c). Normative Deliberation 126/2008. Belo Horizonte (MG), 3p.