My opinion about the Municipal Solid Waste Management in Brazil:

The issue regarding the disposal of solid waste has become one of the biggest challenges of public management in Brazil, in view of the serious environmental impacts generated by the "dumps" (final disposal of waste outside specifications and without sanitary control) or by the drain of regular landfill capacity.

The debate regarding the promotion of solid waste sector has been growing in recent years because of greater concern regarding the proper disposal of it, avoiding significant environmental impacts and adverse effects on human health.

In Brazil, the disposal of Municipal Solid Waste (MSW) is still a major problem. According to the Overview of Solid Waste in Brazil, published by the Brazilian Association of Public Cleaning (ABRELPE), in 2010 Brazil generated approximately 60 millions of tons/year of solid waste. Only half of this waste is destined for sanitary landfill.

By 2014, the National Policy on Solid Waste states that dumps must be eradicated and replaced by landfills. The director of the Ministry of Environment says that this deadline will be maintained. "The government has placed resources by the federal government and local governments to encourage them to engage in this idea of the integrated management of municipal solid waste," says Zilda Veloso, director of the Ministry of Environment. The research coordinator of ABRELPE says the challenge is great. "We had an increase in the generation but did not have the same with destination which means the country has developed economically, but has not evolved environmentally," says Carlos Silva.

I think that Brazil does not advance MSW management due to the follows points:

1. Governance capacity, low level of education of officials and politicians of the small municipalities;

2. Political financing campaign of mayors, the existence of corruption in some municipalities in the country;

3. Contracts models, aimed to lower cost with effective treatment;

4. It is not realized diagnostic of the municipalities’ situation to decide on the management model;

5. Inadequate choice of technologies employed. Little diversification across the country does not make sense that a country the size, culture, economy and environment as diverse employ only a single treatment model.

6. Low transparency of cost information or criteria for choosing the contractors.

Brazil may in the future use the following forms of treatment of municipal solid waste: (a) landfill, (b) sorting and recycling; (c) composting, (d) anaerobic digesters (e) waste to energy (WTE) plants-or waste-energy (REN), (f) incineration with energy recovery, which will be chosen according to the type of waste, amount of waste processed, applications, advantages and disadvantages, required investments, cost structure (fixed, variable, operational, per ton), costs of operation and maintenance of the units, minimum installed capacity, the nature of the service provider, the amount of energy generated , logistics involved, and other information related to each technology.

Finally there will be a technical, socioeconomic and environmental evaluation of the technologies for the treatment of municipal solid waste, considering its applicability and sustainability based on the quantity and characteristics of the waste generated in a locality, environmental impacts and the generation of employment and income.

Dear Jose,

Thank you very for sharing information about your country, Brazil. This is very informative. I do agree with you because my country, Cambodia, has quite similar situation. I got some lesson learned from Brazil. I do hope in future your nation could find better solution for SWM. I am also doing research on this issue and try to find a proper methodss to treat waste according to individual waste characteristics in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. Based on Cambodia context bahavior of people plays a crucial role in SWM, i think. Secondly, incentive from government for small interprise, NGO and the like in term of waste reduction by composting, biodigestion and so on will become more effective.

The best way is to teach public that solid waste is not waste any more. Wast is one of our renewable resources. organic waste can be easly converted to fertiliser (organic waste is the main components of our daily waste), plastic metal and paper can be sailed and recycled. However, the private sector or the the governments should establish the suitable factory. construction waste can be reused again..... management and education only can solve this issue effectively

Municipal waste should be converted into organic fertilizer. The organic fertilizer is needed in Africa as inorganic fertilizer is scarce and expensive

You may go for de-centralize management of MSW in your city. Suppose if you have some clusters containing high rise buildings and hotels, then you can propose collection of food waste and may go for composting (if low budget) or bio-methanation. The bio-methanation will give you methane as well as organic fertilizers. To manage other category of waste, you must go for waste component analysis before making a plan

The first question would be how to actually perform any waste management option (essentially a combination of waste disposal/recovery methods) in a developing country. As per strategic waste management planning (recommended as a reference by the World Bank), the first thing is to work on the policy then define the problem or problems. In my experience, developing countries often suffer from lack of consistent and practically viable waste management policy. The problem in most developing countries is that the policies, lack or shortage of environmental protective laws and regulation mainly in terms of enforcement, poor infrastructure and alike, leads the decision making process into a "put off the fire" approach in contrast to a long term solution to minimize environmental adverse impacts and maximizing resource recovery. A good understanding of the problem and available resources (financial, political, economic, etc.) can result in an appropriate action plan with estimated time and budget for short, medium and long term. There are often problems that need immediate actions and problems requiring loner durations and constant effort and attention. For instance, a sanitary landfill can solve the existing (typically the case in developing countries) environmental issues and plan for resource recovery such as composting and recycling and source separation, privatization of waste management, developing laws and regulations and standards, market development etc can be done at later stages. It s all about planning, planning, planning! There is no immediate solution, but there are wisely decided plans that can lead the way to success without which we will put off fire instead...

Waste management is a burning issue in India. The problems are:

1. Lack of awareness of waste generators (households/hotels/etc. in segregation of waste, and it becomes very challenging to take up recycling/composting etc.

2. Lack of initiative from Municipal Authorities

Though the MSW rules directs municipal authorities to keep different coloured bins in different localities, it is not implemented in majority of localities. Hence, those waste generators who segregate the waste at the point of generation finds it of no use, as finally it is all dumped together in the Municipal Bin.

3. Lack of man power and technology with Municipal Authorities is another issue. Hence they find privatization as an alternative. (However, in my opinion privatization will not be helpful in meeting the objective of 'waste minimization'. Many landfills taken up by the private parties, which was meant for 20 years was filled up in just 5 years!!!)

4. 'Waste to energy' technologies have failed in many parts of India for various reasons. One being the higher moisture content of our wastes.

5. Other technologies like composting etc are good. However, segregation of waste being a big challenge, India need to focus more on this side.

(some times, India is also forced to manage the waste of other countries, as it is being dumped here with wrong labels).

Minimization of waste shall be the objective of any waste management programme.

One strategy that can lessen the volume of solid waste in a certain community is by mobilizing the people in practicing proper solid waste disposal. If the 3R's can be implemented at source, then waste that will reach the dumpsite would drastically reduced. For example, in a school where I am connected, we tried to have our own MRF and processing place of our generated solid waste. But the volume of solid waste that reached our MRF are those after the 3Rs has been practiced in the source- the campus. Solid waste management framework is by triagulation approach. Three main movers are involved: (1) the administration responsible for policy implementation and for bin provision and facility for waste transport, (2) stakeholders for the practice of 3Rs, and (3) admin staff responsible for transportation, processing and disposal of waste. In bigger community, if all the communities within it can have solid waste management that encourage the practice of 3Rs, then SW generation would be minimized.

I have investigated waste management in 22 developing countries in which i present the factors that affect the efficiency of waste management systems. i suggest to read the article that can be found at:

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0956053X12004205

Thanks for all answers, comments and for sharing the link for source. I have read some of this.

one of the most important aspects is waste avoidance; important is also recycling /reuse of waste.

Solid waste management is a capital intensive activity. The best way to improve MSW management is to properly plan and invest in the required infrastructure. Recycling, collection, transportation and disposal all require infrastructure to succeeded.

Waste segregation at source and recycling is one of the better option for developing economies.

Municipal waste should be converted into organic fertilizer. The organic fertilizer is needed in Africa as organic fertilizer is scarce and expensive.

Recommend you to read "Solid waste management challenges for cities in developing countries" from Waste Management Journal

The best approach should be originated from household segregation to final disposal. To gain the efficiency of household segregation, public awareness, education and trainings are a must. Then, the private sector or governmental sector should provide sufficient facilities related to different waste bins for proper household segregation as well as scheduled collection systems.

Based on the segregated wastes, some are treated for recycling, some for composting, some for waste to energy and some for landfilling. For waste to energy, the incineration process may have some problems due to higher moisture contents of the wastes in the developing countries (over 50% of moisture). So, I would prefer a holistic approach to the waste management in the developing countries, not focusing on treatment process but just also on institutional aspects, environmental aspects and economic aspects.

First of all, it is very cumbersome task to manage the waste in the developing countries because of poor infrastructure and regulations.

To manage the solid waste, we need to integrate huge network of informal sector with existing formal sector for better collection, segregation, recycling and final disposal of waste in an environmentally sound way. Moreover, implement EPR in the waste management and handling policies for smooth functioning. The use best available practices should be used for recycling and treatment. Finally, the residual left after treatment and recycling used for waste to energy recovery with the help of incineration and other biotechnological methods in order to avoid maximum landfill disposal and reduce the hazardous impact due to waste contamination with soil and aquatic system.

Separation of different wastes is the most difficult problems

Waste segregation may be cumbersome so I will go for recycling methods

The best way should originate from household segregation to final disposal. To gain the maximum turn up of household segregation, public awareness, education and training needed to be carried out.

Agree that training is very important for municipal wastes. Sanitation stage is a must to kill all pathogens and garantee nutrient value of composting wof astes.

In developing countries, the best way to improve the municipal solid waste management should begin with a better understanding of their quantities and properties, without which we will not know the potential for the use of materials and energy. At the same time we must know the needs of the local and regional market, trying to establish a technical and economical feasibility for each treatment infrastructure.

Hi Yim,

There are many success stories like city of Indore in India.

Some challenges faced by developing nations are lack of awareness among people about waste segregation and proper disposal, lax regulations, synergy between various value chain partners and lack of Infrastructure.

Moreover, there is lack of recycling facilities to close the loop.

The process, activities, and the challenges of managing solid waste in any country are the same. Developed countries have been working on this for a long time and have a lot of automation, which is expensive. Developing nations can study the systems in a few nations considered the best in handing solid waste and adopt it to suit their need with suitable modifications rather than doing everything or developing everything from scratch.

Developing nations already have some excellent recycling processes/systems in place such as segregating various metals, paper, plastic, electronics etc and selling it to scrap vendor(s), which do not exist in developed countries.

Importnt to note that in developing and debveloped countries sanitation stage of city wastes have to be more strict and to be longer. Thermophilic stage was 50oC for 3-4 days, now is 55oC for 3-4 day but must be 60oC for 4 days to avoid any complications with city pathogens. So composts need bigger volume and bio inoculant to passed sanitation stage.