Contribuição das cooperativas de reciclagem na gestão de resíduos sólidos urbanos na cidade de Maceió/AL

Abstract

Municipal Solid Waste (MSW), especially in large urban centers, has been a matter of concern for the population and public workers responsible for its maintenance, as it involves costs and requires actions to reduce environmental, economic and social impacts, if neglected. According to the National Solid Waste Policy (PNRS), enacted through Brazilian Federal Law No. 12.305, of August 02, 2010, the following order of priority for waste management and maintenance must be observed: non-generation, reduction, reuse, recycling, treatment of solid waste and final disposal of waste in an environmentally appropriate manner. The reuse of dry recyclable waste is an opportunity for recovery and appreciation, which can be absorbed in production cycles, being reintroduced for the manufacture of new products, replacing the virgin raw material obtained from the extraction of natural resources, reducing the costs of collection, transport and final destination of MSW by the municipal management, in addition to extending the useful life of the sanitary landfill and generating employment and income for the cooperatives of recyclable material collectors. Thus, the present work aims to evaluate the contribution and impacts of 4 Cooperatives of Collectors of Reusable and Recyclable Materials hired by the Maceió City Hall (Cooplum, Coopvila, Cooprel Benedito Bentes and Cooprel Antares, in the districts of Jacarecica, São Jorge, Benedito Bentes e Antares, respectively) to conduct the selective collection, with regard to the management of urban solid waste in the municipality of Maceió, identify challenges and suggest improvements. Even though Maceió has 100% coverage for the collection, transport and conventional final destination of MSW, when analyzing the scope of door-to-door selective collection, only 31% of the urbanized area of the capital is served. Is possible to verify that neither the Municipal Urban Cleaning Code (Law No. 6.933, of september 04, 2019) nor the Municipal Plan for Basic Sanitation ((Law No. 6.755, of may 24, 2018) of Maceió are being met by the current amount of Ecopontos. Finally, despite all the benefits of recycling in various aspects of society and the environment, and with more than 5 years of operation by cooperatives, selective collection still has low adherence by the population and, consequently, low impact on the material destined for the sanitary landfill and little reduction in municipal costs of management and handling of MSW.