Waste Management in Developing Countries: Present Conditions and Foreseen Paths - a Brazilian Overview

Transcription

1 Waste Management in Developing Countries: Present Conditions and Foreseen Paths - a Brazilian Overview Alberto Bianchini & Carlos Silva Filho ABRELPE - Brazilian Association of Urban Cleansing and Waste Management CONTACT Name: Organization: Carlos Silva Filho ABRELPE - Brazilian Association of Urban Cleansing and Waste Management Postal Address: Av. Paulista, 807 cj. 207 São Paulo SP Brazil - CEP Phone/Fax: carlos@abrelpe.org.br EXECUTIVE SUMMARY The attention given today to solid waste management in developing countries is growing, but still incipient. In Brazil, it is un-proportional to population growth and inadequate to the industrial development. The global alert that physical areas and natural resources are not eternal assets is now a reality understood all around the world and a sustainable development under a globalization challenge a vital necessity. To achieve these objectives efficiency improvement and effectiveness of the waste management system in developing countries towards the sustainable development - a global and updated view on the system is a very important tool to facilitate its understanding and, consequently, plan and implement the demanded solutions. Believing that the provision of information becomes an instrument that shows the path to the right decision, this paper will show the Brazilian reality on waste management, how it grows, which are the commonest problems, the present conditions, innovations and trends, analyzing some aspects of solid waste management. This paper will show updated data on waste management in Brazil, mainly concerned to Municipal Solid Waste, Health-care Waste, Recycling, Clean Development Mechanisms and Legal Aspects. Finally are presented the foreseen paths, where the previous information is taken under consideration, and some solutions are predicted for the desired sustainable future.

2 INTRODUCTION The human being is the reason for the existence of the waste management industry in the world. The waste management industry deals with the remains from human activities, so it is directly concerned to the society quality of life and interrelate in a great variety of science fields. Not a long time ago human beings spread their inefficiency remains all over the planet leaving the solid waste management questions to the lower level of importance. But some mindful ones realized the distance from growth to development and started some actions to alert and point out that physical spaces and natural resources are not eternal assets. From some isolated voices and regional groups we had in the past nowadays we have a truly citizen army that show more and more capacity to address and sustain the globalization challenge on the waste management sector. During the research it was observed that internal factors to waste management in the country promote the qualitative distance regarding this management process. Demographic densities, technical operations and political exercises with different references are factors which change the allocation of resources and capital for the waste handling industry. Municipal Solid Waste The generation of MSW has shown some obvious data, such as the increase in waste generation directly and proportionally associated with the demographic growth, and others, such as the variation of waste composition and the materials that appear in the average sample of the MSW in Brazil, what have direct connection with gas production in landfills and in the recycling chain. On the other hand, the MSW manual collection rates without trace of mechanization has shown that the costs of this improvement still cannot be afforded by the service providers, once the amount of funds committed by the Municipalities to waste management services is insignificant (less than 5% of their budget in the greatest majority). Another problem that must be dealt with is the existing gap in the MSW final disposal, where almost 60% of the total amount collected in Brazil do not have regular destination, and the historic scene shows that in the last 10 years this gap is being developed only by the private initiative once public investments were not detected in this period. Unquestionably and positively, Brazil has acted commercially in the carbon credits market created by the Kyoto Protocol. The activities in this market are undertaken especially with the development of landfill gas use. Separate Collection and Recycling Brazil s current performance regarding recycling leaves a great way for improvement. Current solid waste recovery levels under a formal program are far below the desirable. From more than 5500 Municipalities in Brazil, only 451 have separate collection services. Despite this data, recycling rates for some materials are very high in Brazil. The emerging issue is that the industry seek for some materials and stimulate the informal chain to collect it (aluminium cans, paper, glass, etc.). But because of this we do not have a stable development nor a regular growth. It varies according to industry interests from time to time and place to place. Health-care Waste The Health-care Waste sector have a mission of great importance nowadays: set, with proper scientific basis, which waste classes need to be submitted to any type of treatment before its final

3 disposal. This lack of definition takes to the result that a great portion of the HCW generated has not regular management after its collection. An important emerging issue is that the HCW treatment industry is set and prepared to receive and treat the greatest part of the waste produced and if we have greater enforcement to not allow HCW disposal without treatment the demand would be rapidly absorbed. Legislation and Public Policies Brazil still suffer with the lack of a National Policy on Waste Management to set principles, instruments, directives to the sector. Some States have its own State Policy, implemented specifically to deal with regional characteristics. But at the beginning of 2007 the Federal Government approved the National Policy on Basic Sanitation, which include some rules about waste management, considered one of the four basic sanitation services, together with water, sewage and drainage services. This legislation gives some directions to the Public Administration on how to deal and carry on waste management services under its responsibility. MUNICIPAL SOLID WASTE To this paper we considered as Municipal Solid Waste fraction the entire portion of waste produced by a urban group, exception to health-care waste and industrial waste. Defined this concept we took into account all kinds of waste produced in households, as food waste, discarded products, waste from streets cleansing, garden waste and construction and demolition waste. This waste fraction took to a total amount of tonnes that must be collected, transfered and disposed off each day. Some external factors affect directly this daily production and have to be considered during the entire survey to evaluate and achieve the correct results. The factors considered were city population, urban or rural location and local habits, once they impact directly in the numbers. On the other hand we must remember that Brazil is a continental country in its extension with considerable regional differences. Population Bands Cities Total Population Table1. Population and MSW Generation Urban (%) Rural (%) MSW per day (tonnes) MSW (%) c < > c > > c > > c > > c > > c > > c > c > Total The evolution of the waste generation in Brazil trough the years can be seen in the table below: Table 2. Evolution of MSW Generation in Brazil (ton/day) Year MSW

4 Waste Composition Taking some samples from the total amount of waste generated daily in Brazil and submitting it into a characterization analysis resulted in the waste composition shown below, where it is possible to conclude that besides the recycling material increasing, the organic matter still is the biggest portion in the Brazilian waste. Figure 1. Waste composition in Brazil Mechanized Collection The numbers show that, differently from other countries, Brazil has not adopted the mechanized collection yet. Only 0,12% from de 127 Municipalities that answered to ABRELPE survey in 2006 adopt this system. It is possible to note that the majority of Municipalities that adopt mechanized collection with containers are State capitals or cities which are under some type of variation in its number of inhabitants. In this cases the waste industry got enough reasons to justify and support the change from manual collection, getting funds from the responsible Municipality, which had sufficient resources to afford this improvement. However this is not the commonest situation in the great majority of Brazilian Municipalities. The fact is that they do not apply enough funds to support changes and improvements in waste management sector. Financial Aspects of MSW Management The great majority of Brazilian Municipality (almost 80%) apply less than 5% of their budget in waste management services and more than 35% do not have any kind of instrument to charge for the services, in these cases the costs are supported by the Municipality with resources received from other sources (general taxes, financial revenues, etc.) Table 3. Municipal funds commited to MSW Services Region Municipalities with % of the Budget commited to MSW services services Less than 5% More than 5% North Northeast Mid-west Southeast South Brazil

5 Figure 2. Waste Taxation in Brazil MSW Destination If MSW collection rates are near 100%, it is in the destination services that we find the major problem to be solved. Table 4. MSW Collection Coverage Area 2005 (%) 2006 (%) Brazil 94,44 94,96 Almost 60% of the total collected amount do not have regular destination, disposed off in open dumps, water sources and other irregular destination. The irregular disposal of MSW amounts to almost tonnes per day. To worse the problem, a considerable portion of the rest ( tonnes/day) officially considered as having regular destination in fact is disposed into controlled landfills not into sanitary landfills. Figure 3. MSW Final Destination in Brazil

6 To solve the problem some initiatives were implemented in the last 10 years, but public funds were not used to implement large scale sanitary landfills, while two important initiatives, the Salvador BA and Marambaia RJ landfills were implemented through concessions granted to the private initiative. In the same period, however, 18 private landfills were implemented, out of which 15 are located in the Southeast region (13 in the state of Sao Paulo and 2 in the state of Espirito Santo), 2 in the South (Rio Grande do Sul and Santa Catarina) and 1 in the Northeast (Rio Grande do Norte), receiving, in total, ton/day. Considering the total amount of municipal solid waste collected in 2005 ( ton/day), private landfills already respond for 14% of the final disposal in Brazil. The commercialization of carbon credits in sanitary landfills, as a consequence of the clean development mechanisms (CDM) created by Kyoto Protocol, is already a reality for nine Brazilian enterprises as shown below. Figure 4. Waste CDM Enterprises installed Investment necessities in collection and destination services Brazilian Ministry of Environment identified a group of investment necessities in urban areas regarding improvements in MSW collection and destination services. The table below, with amounts based in 2003, presents the list of investment necessities. Table 5. Investment Necessities in Urban Areas Service / Activity Amount (US$) Universalization of Collection ,00 Fleet Reposição ,00 Consulting, monitoring and Evaluation ,00 Sub-total Collection and Transportation (33)% ,00

7 New Sanitary Landfills ,00 Open Dumps closure ,00 Consulting, monitoring and Evaluation ,00 Sub-total Final Destination (67%) ,00 Total ,00 SEPARATE COLLECTION AND RECYCLING Formal separate collection programs can be seen in less than 10% of Brazilian Municipalities, and it is one of the many barriers to the recycling chain development. Some of these barriers are material specific, others affect the recovery of all waste streams. Table 6. Municipalities with separate collection services Year 2000 Region Municipalities with Separate Collection Services Total of Municipalities North Northeast Mid-west Southeast South Brazil It is important to stand out that the organic matter in the MSW fraction still is the most significant portion, representing almost 60% of the total generated. However its recovery under composting processes, for example, is not detected. The first and biggest barrier to recycling development in Brazil is the absence of formal programs carried out by the Municipalities. The predominance of actions carried out by the informal chain harms the expansion of recycling rates with such potential, due to absolute impossibility of managing the process. The informal chain carry the service without any organization. As in the first phase (collection) you do not have management, in the second one (recovery and recycling) you face a lack of logistics affecting the entire process and the development of this sector, once it is not possible to plan, build and implement recycling programs and facilities without organization. Other existing barriers are: - No culture of recycling added to the fact that disposal is cheaper and easier. There is almost no culture of recovery in Brazil today, people live in a throw away society. Landfill still is the cheapest disposal solution and options are found in large scale, so the prices are very attractive. - The cost of separate collection is in many cases the reason presented by Municipalities to not implement it. In a comparison with the regular kerbside collection, separate collection systems are, at least, 30% more expensive. Once the waste management costs are supported by Municipalities and they do not have funds nor economic instruments to afford it, they simply do not implement separate collection services. - Lack of economic instruments. There is still a notion that recycling should always either be free of cost or inherently profitable, however in many cases economic supporting instruments are often required.

8 Despite these barriers, some materials present very high recycling rates in Brazil. Among them five materials aluminum, paper, PET bottles, steel and glass are those presenting the highest recycling rates, according to the rates presented in the figure below. The initiative driven by the market itself is very plausible and can be proven by the fact that a tonne of aluminium can clean and pressed is sold for US$ 2.000,00. Figure 5. Recycling rates for some materials in Brazil HEALTH-CARE WASTE Health-care waste are the ones generated in several activities for life and health support for both humans and animals, even the ones only focused on esthetics. Finding a criteria, where the definition of health-care solid waste applies is the major challenge for this sector for the next years in Brazil. Defining properly what really is health-care waste and which fraction must be treated before disposed off will ensure regular management to this waste stream. The emerging fact from this theme concerns to a discussion between health-care sector against environmentalists and waste industry sector where the first ones, thinking only about costs, defend that just a small portion is really HCW to be treated, and do not take into consideration the precaution principle, WHO directives on infectious waste management and possible resulting damages from disposing potential infectious waste directly into landfills and open dumps. This scenery leads to a reality where a considerable portion of HCW (infectious included) is not treated, but directly disposed off. Table 7. HCW Generation and Treatment (ton/day) Region Total Generated Treated % Treatment North 56,33 5,70 10,12 Northeast 261,40 40,07 15,33 Mid-west 110,03 38,33 34,84 Southeast 435,13 176,83 40,64 South 161,94 32,00 19,76 Brazil 1.024,84 292,93 28,58

9 This table shows that the biggest concentration of HCW generation is at the Southeast region, which also has the higher percentage of treatment, considerably higher than the national average, the same occurring in the Mid-West region. While only 28,03% of health-care waste generated in Brazil is properly treated, a variety of type of HCW treatment exists and has installed plants to absorb almost 50% more waste to treat. Table 8. HCW Generation and Treatment and Treatment Capacity Installed and under Implementation HCW Amount (ton/day) Treatment Capacity (ton/day) Area Generated Treated Installed Under Implementation Brazil 1.024,84 292,93 470,94 36,00 Figure 6. Types of HCW treatment and percentage participation in the fraction treated LEGISLATION AND PUBLIC POLICIES A National Policy on Waste Management is required to set principles, instruments and directives to the sector. The discussions are running at the Federal level for 15 years but a waste management law still have not been implemented. On the other hand, some States have its own State Waste Policy, implemented specifically to deal with regional characteristics, but without a national legislation we can notice a lack of integrated actions between different actors and regional differences regarding same issues what results in an unstable scenery. However since 2007 Brazil has a National Policy on Basic Sanitation (Federal Law /2007), which include some rules about public waste management, ruled as one of the four basic sanitation services. The services regarding waste management ruled by the law are the activities, infrastructures and plants related to collection, transportation, transfer and final disposal of household waste and of waste from street cleansing. According to the law the contracts with reference to some of the mentioned services will be valid only if some items are observed by the Municipalities: existence of a basic sanitation plan; existence of studies regarding adequate technical and economic conditions of the services; existence

10 of local regulation rules and a regulation authority and undertake previous public audiences about bidding and contract conditions. Besides it, this legislation also gives some directions to the Public Administration on how to deal and carry on waste management services under its responsibility. Another legal instrument recently implemented with importance to waste management sector is the Public Consotiums Law (Federal Law /2005). The importance of this law comes from the fact that solutions for municipal solid waste management many times depend on economies of scale to express economic-financial feasibility. Public Consortiums Law allows the Municipalities to get united, also with States and the Federal Government, in legal conditions of commitment to allow the structuring of concessions to the private initiative providing security and guarantees to the investor. CONCLUSION AND FORESEEN PATHS For the municipal solid waste sector, the year of 2007 represented a period of significant progresses in the construction of an appropriate scenario in which the Brazilian municipalities can find sustainable solutions for a complete and environmentally friendly of solid waste management. This is because the Federal Government implemented the National Policy on Basic Sanitation which gives some rules to waste management by the public administration. Since 2005, the waste management framework shows a new trend, mainly for the adequacy of the waste management industry. The effect of two new laws, the Federal Law /2005, on the public consortiums, and /2004, on the public-private partnerships, motivated a positive change at the municipalities mind, in the sense of search for support from the private initiative, considering the possibilities of joint actions, investments and operations, in order to find an optimal formula to improve the waste management issues. Despite it, a National Policy on Waste Management is required to develop the infrastructural and legislative conditions necessary for a higher development of the waste management sector. However Brazil suffers with the lack of a National Waste Policy. Some Federal States have their own Waste Policies implemented, but they must be adjusted to the National Law when it comes. At that time we will face new debates. Out of the legislative sphere, the Clean Development Mechanisms created by the Kyoto Protocol can become, with revenue coming from the commercialization of carbon credits, an interesting additional funding source to collaborate with the reduction of municipal solid waste final disposal costs, contributing to its adequacy and collaborating with the enterprise investment recovery. Moreover, it happens under a totally favorable and environmentally friendly scenario, since the CDM s are a compensation for greenhouse effect gases. That favorable reality of the CDM s has showed in the moment that some State Environment Agencies announced the increase of the landfill license requests, what leads to believe that 2007 and on should have more adequate MSW final destination. It is though desirable and necessary that the municipal managers bear in mind the new group of possibilities so that, in practical terms, such potential conditions are transformed into consistent solutions implemented for a proper management of municipal solid waste. Final destination of MSW must be adequate and universalized in an environmentally sound way and long term solutions must be implemented with environmental and economical sustainability.

11 For the recycling activities, the predominance of actions carried out by the informal chain harms the expansion of recycling rates for an expressive amount of materials with such potential, due to the absolute impossibility of managing the process. The lack of a specific tributary legislation that benefits the utilization of raw material deriving from recycling also inhibits the process by restraining the demand for such materials. It is urgent that public policies that institute formal recyclables collection and recycling programs are implemented, mainly by the municipalities, in which the funds would come from the polluterpayer principle. The decrease in the volume of organic matter in the collected waste mass could be a positive factor, since it is related to source reduction in Brazilian homes, but what really draws attention is the lack of composting as an organic recycling technology. Brazil is a tropical country, with high air humidity and temperatures and big agricultural activity, therefore totally favorable to such practice. In the Health-care Waste field we have to deal with the generators responsibility and enforce them to treat the entire hazardous portion before final destination into landfills.the stablishment of sanitary barriers is extremely important to the preservation of public health and it is strongly recommended that the states of the federation that still haven t determined previous treatment for the whole range of hazardous health-care waste do it. Generally, the concept of adopting integrated solutions towards sustainable development is gaining space day-by-day among public and private managers. However in order to bring and deliver these solutions and paths, several specific actions and instruments are required from the main stakeholders. REFERENCES ABRELPE 2004: Panorama of Solid Waste in Brazil Brazilian Association of Urban Cleansing and Waste Management, Sao Paulo SP, Brazil ABRELPE 2005: Panorama of Solid Waste in Brazil Brazilian Association of Urban Cleansing and Waste Management, Sao Paulo SP, Brazil ABRELPE 2006: Panorama of Solid Waste in Brazil Brazilian Association of Urban Cleansing and Waste Management, Sao Paulo SP, Brazil