Composition and quantification of the anthropogenic and natural fractions of wastes collected from the stormwater drainage system for discussions about the waste management and people behavior

A study was made of the composition of wastes collected from the pipes of the stormwater drainage system of Sorocaba, SP, Brazil (600 thousand inhabitants). A total of 10 samples weighing at least 100 kg each were sorted into 19 items to determine the fraction that can be considered natural (earth/sand, stones, organic matter, and water, the latter determined after oven-drying the samples) and the anthropogenic fraction (the remaining 15 items, especially construction and demolition wastes and packaging). Soil/sand was found to be the main item collected (52.5 % dry weight), followed by the water soaked into the waste (24.3 %), which meant that all the other wastes were saturated in mud, whose contents varied from 6.4 % (glass) to 87.2 % (metalized plastics packaging). In general, 83 % of the collected wastes can be classified as natural, but the remaining 17 % represent 2,000 kg of the most varied types of wastes discarded improperly every day on the streets of the city. This is an alarming amount of wastes that may clog parts of the drainage systems, causing troubles for all the population (like flooding) and must be strongly considered in municipal solid wastes management and in environmental education programs. © 2013 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht.

Life cycle assessment applied to municipal solid waste management: a case study

This study analyzes the environmental performance of the Municipal Solid Waste Management System (MSWMS) of Piedade, São Paulo, from a systemic perspective. A life cycle assessment (LCA) technique was applied according to an attributional approach to evaluate both the current operational situation and different prospective scenarios, which were devised based on the application of targets for recycling dry and wet waste suggested by the pre-draft version of the Brazilian Plan for Solid Waste. The life cycle impact assessment method EcoIndicator 99, in association with normalization and weighting procedures, was used to conduct the analysis. It was observed that the adoption of goals of 30%, 50% and 70% for recovering of the recyclable dry waste, resulted in improvement of the environmental performance of the waste management system under analysis, respectively of 10%, 15% and 20%. It was also possible to detect an evolution in the order of 54% in reducing impacts resulting from the adoption of targets for composting. LCA proved to be effective for the evaluation of the environmental performance of MSWMS-Piedade. However, for future evaluations, the attributional approach should be replaced by the methodological practice of substitution to enable the avoided burdens to be considered in estimations of the environmental performance municipal solid waste management systems.

Grupo de apoiadores e cooperlix em Presidente Prudente-SP, Brasil: modelo e evolução de suas relações durante quinze anos

Pós-graduação em Geografia - FCT

Brazil's new national policy on solid waste: challenges and opportunities

Brazil, one of the world's largest developing countries, has recently introduced a new solid waste management regulatory policy. This new regulatory policy will have implications for a wide variety of stakeholders and sets the stage for opportunities and lessons to be learned. These issues are discussed in this article. © 2013 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg.

Construction and demolition waste as a source of PVC for recycling

Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)

Recycling potential of urban solid waste destined for sanitary landfills: the case of Indaiatuba, SP, Brazil

The urban solid waste of the city of Indaiatuba (pop. 175 000), located in the state of São Paulo, was characterized, focusing on the recycling potential. For this purpose, collected waste was subdivided into 27 items, classified by mass and volume. About 90% of this waste was found to be potentially recyclable and only 10% requiring landfilling. The compostable organic matter, in the form of food and garden waste, both with high moisture content (51 and 41%, respectively), represents 54% in mass and 21% in volume. The most common type of plastic in this waste is high density polyethylene, whose estimated disposal is about 5000 kg day(-1). A socio-economic analysis of the waste generation indicates that low-income neighbourhoods discard relatively less packaging and more food waste, shoes and construction debris than middle and high income ones, which may be due to low purchasing power and schooling. Our findings indicate that more aluminium and uncoloured polyethylene terephthalate is discarded in the warmest months of the year, probably due to a greater consumption of canned and bottled drinks.

Air quality and emissions management in the State of São Paulo, Brazil

The São Paulo State has 36 million people, 25 million living in three metropolitan areas. Only the São Paulo Metropolitan Region (SPMR) includes the state capital (São Paulo City) plus 38 cities, where ≈ 18 million people live, affected by frequent episodes of ozone, NOx, and fine particulate matter. In 2003, it was estimated that 15.1% of the SPMR vehicles used ethanol and 70.2% used the local gasoline. Natural gas vehicles have witnessed a booming participation in the last years, mainly through conversion of gasoline cars, and the present fleet is almost one million vehicles. To face the problems generated by light vehicles emissions the Federal Government set a program called PROCONVE - Program of Air Pollution Control from Vehicles - in 1986 and since then until now a significant reduction was reached, but the growth of the fleet hides most of the emission cuts. A discussion covers the evolution of the air pollution management in São Paulo; and innovative tools for air pollution management - both for mobile and stationary sources. This is an abstract of a paper presented at the 98th AWMA Annual Conference and Exhibition (Minneapolis, MN 6/21-24/2005).

Analysis of hybrid waste-to-energy for medium-sized cities

Urban centers have a huge demand for electricity and the growing problem of the solid waste management generated by their population, a relevant social and administrative problem. The correct disposal of the municipal solid waste (MSW) generated in cities is one of the most complex engineering problems that involves logistics, safety, environmental and energetic aspects for its adequate management. Due to a national policy of solid wastes recently promulgated, Brazilian cities are evaluating the technical and economic feasibility of incinerating the non-recyclable waste. São José dos Campos, a São Paulo State industrialized city, is considering the composting of organic waste for biogas production and mass incineration of non-recyclable waste. This paper presents a waste-to-energy system based on the integration of gas turbines to a MSW incinerator for producing thermal and electric energy as an alternative solution for the solid waste disposal in São José dos Campos, SP. A technical and economic feasibility study for the hybrid combined cycle plant is presented and revealed to be attractive when carbon credit and waste tax are included in the project income. © 2013 Elsevier Ltd.

Análise do gerenciamento dos resíduos sólidos domiciliares do município de Ilha Solteira – SP

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES)

Greening the campus of a Brazilian university: cultural challenges

Purpose - This study examined the relationship between environmental management practices developed at a campus of a Brazilian university (University of Sao Paulo) and the greening of its organizational culture. The paper aims to discuss these issues.Design/methodology/approach - This article presents a theoretical background based on the concepts of environmental management, organizational culture and environmental management in higher education institutions. The main framework of this research is the model proposed by Harris and Crane.Findings - The studied university has an environmental management program that is sometimes constrained in the following ways: the university bureaucracy and hierarchy; the main performance indicators for lecturers and professors are based on scientific production and publication, giving them little time for complementary activities; and some units develop their own environmental management practices, but they are not disseminated as best practices for use by other units. Some academic units showcase the proactive actions of professors who incorporate environmental management into their daily activities. The general perception is that the phrase environmental management is almost synonymous with solid waste management.Originality/value - This research details the first Brazilian application of the Harris and Crane model. It contributes an original analysis of environmental management and green organizational culture of a Brazilian university, an organizational type that has seldom been studied to date.

Cooperviva: análise das possibilidades e limites do trabalho dos catadores de resíduos recicláveis de Rio Claro (SP)

The issue of waste, historically, has been getting worse as a result of the world´s population increase and in order to meet their needs the consumption of natural resources and the generation has been constantly increasing, especially in large urban centers. The people involved in the collection of recyclable solid waste, called from now on as collectors, are responsible for about 90% of the waste sent to recycling industry in Brazil. Apart from having a role in the economy, the collectors have specific knowledge and skills necessary to identify, collect, sort and sell these wastes. This study aims to examine the possibilities and limits of COOPERVIVA – Cooperativa de Trabalho dos Catadores de Material Reaproveitável de Rio Claro - as an instrument of the municipal solid waste management system, and its experience as a recyclable waste collectors cooperative. The methodological procedures of this study rely on the literature research on the experiences of cooperative and the management of municipal solid waste. In addition to this review of the literature, fortnightly visits to the cooperative were held in order to experience their daily activities, and testimonies of the cooperative members were collected as well as documents and reports produced by COOPERVIVA. The results of this analysis are considerations of the limitations of the cooperative and recommendations aimed at maximizing their potential as a tool of the domestic solid waste management system of and as a recyclable waste collectors cooperative. Among other things it can be concluded that the urban selective collection of waste challenges the community to the reinvention of life and the relationships each individual with the planet.

Avaliação do gerenciamento e disposição final dos resíduos químicos de laboratórios do IGCE, UNESP - Rio Claro/SP

Laboratory of Chemical Waste Management programs are being implemented in various universities of the country and the world, in recognition of the urgent need to change the reality of disregard for the environment, together with objective responsibility of the generator, and especially the awareness of sustainability. Analysis and research laboratories involve a range of waste in developing their studies with intrinsic characteristics related to their form of generation. The amount of waste generated in this segment is negligible compared to industrial activities, but the environmental issue is that these residues do not have a standard technique for treatment due to the potential variation of its composition. This research project, aiming their suitability and continuous improvement, aims to diagnose and analyze the current situation of the management and disposal of chemical waste generated by the laboratories IGCE UNESP, Campus Rio Claro / SP. Universities, through their research, teaching and extension, end up generating potentially hazardous chemicals that may contaminate the environment when they are disposed of improperly, with no concern for the environment and / or public health. Aiming to assist in improvements with respect to this issue, the purpose of this study is to understand the management and disposal of chemical waste from the IGCE, laboratories UNESP - Rio Claro / SP, in order to discuss the situation of such waste, and present proposals to reduce generation of the same and minimizing the environmental impact, thereby increasing the local hygiene through proper disposal. The research instrument used interviews, questionnaires, review of recent literature and observations were made in order to develop proposals for the management and disposal of waste. These proposals based on prevention and corrective control, where the preventive approach aims at lifting techniques and actions to reduce the generating sources and...

Plano de gerenciamento sustentável dos resíduos de construção civil. O caso de Rio Claro (SP)

The current problematic of the construction and demolition (C&D) waste faced for the Brazilian cities, is one of the main degradation factors of the environment, over all about the promise of the urban ambient quality. This scenery must mainly to the unsustainable management adopted by the great majority of the Brazilian cities. Therefore, this work aims at to offer subsidies for medium cities, having as study object the city of Rio Claro-SP, (Brazil), in the elaboration of plans and integrated programs of sustainable management of the construction and demolition waste, in accordance with CONAMA Resolution nº 307/2002, that’s set up a sustainable management system of C&D waste. In this direction, the diagnosis of the management was elaborated for the city of Rio Claro, (generation, collects, transport and disposal) and the public administration of the construction and demolition waste, as well as of the study of the related aspects with C&D waste recycling plant. Later, was suggested a plan of improvements for the public manager of C&D waste: areas of temporary disposal to facility the appropriating destination, appropriated areas of final disposal, incentives to the recycling of C&D waste, new legislations, education and orientation programs and adequacy the agents of C&D waste management (generating, transporting, addressee and public manager), directing for an environmental, economic and social sustainability.

Gestão de resíduos sólidos no município de Tibagi - PR: desempenho da coleta seletiva

The objective of this study was to analyze the performance of solid waste management in the municipality of Tibagi, Paraná, a city with approximately 20000 inhabitants, which implemented the selective collection program called Recycle Tibagi. The analysis was based on descriptive statistical techniques, considering the three types of waste (tailings, organic and recyclable), and per capita generation of garbage upward trend in the coming years, based on the method of Winter (Triple Exponential Damping), using data recorded by the Department of the Environment and the Association of Recyclable Materials from Tibagi - ACAMARTI. Efficient selective collection from a structured environmental education program with constant training conducted with the scavengers, possible to obtain important data in sorting and marketing of recyclable materials, saving raw materials, water and energy, as well as relevant indicators social inclusion and employment generation and income. The project involves several areas of municipal management and arouses curiosity and interest in several areas: social, financial, environmental and administrative. It's a way to encourage new projects and public bodies, highlighting the importance of recycling and proper disposal of solid waste.