Proposta de arranjos intermunicipais para o gerenciamento integrado de resíduos sólidos urbanos nos municípios da Costa do Descobrimento, Sul da Bahia, Brasil

Abstract

Despite the enactment of the National Waste Policy, many towns face difficulties in complying with it, in order to perpetuate the negative impacts caused by the inadequate management of urban solid waste. These difficulties are enhanced by technical, financial, managerial and political issues, but which can be minimized or circumvented through the formation of an intertown consortium. In this context, this research aimed to develop an intertown arrangement system for integrated waste management, aiming to support the implementation of an intertown consortium between the eight towns of Costa do Descobrimento, Southern Bahia, Brazil. Qualiquantitative assessment of waste generated in urban areas was carried out; on-site assessment of final disposal sites using the Waste Landfill Quality Index technique; definition of per capita waste generation; population projection estimate over a twenty-year horizon through the use of different mathematical models, and the spatial analysis of the territory to prioritize the criteria for defining the arrangements. The results showed that 75% of the towns in the studied region do not have initiatives based on the hierarchy of prevention, reduction, reuse, recycling, treatment, or environmentally adequate disposal of urban solid waste, only collection and removal from urbanized areas, and 25 % of them started in 2021 the disposal of waste collected in landfills. The territorial analysis resulted in the proposal of two optimized arrangements, both with a single waste final disposal unit and another 26 waste management units, enabling relevant gains in scale and technical sustainability, economic and operational. Thus, the results of the characterization of the waste generated in the towns and the identification of problems to be overcome, added to the analysis of regional characteristics, led to the proposition of the best feasible arrangement for consortium of the towns involved