Title: Analysis of the performance of urban solid waste management system in Brazilian municipalities through data envelopment analysis

Authors: Isabel das Mercês Costa; Marta Ferreira Dias; Margarita Matias Robaina

Addresses: Economic and Business Sciences, Universidade de Aveiro, Portugal; GOVCOPP – Research Unit on Governance, Competitiveness and Public Policies and Analyst, Universidade Estadual de Feira de Santana, Brazil ' DEGEIT – Department of Economics, Management, Industrial Engineering and Tourism, GOVCOPP – Research Unit on Governance, Competitiveness and Public Policies, Universidade de Aveiro – Aveiro, Portugal ' DEGEIT – Department of Economics, Management, Industrial Engineering and Tourism, GOVCOPP – Research Unit on Governance, Competitiveness and Public Policies, Universidade de Aveiro – Aveiro, Portugal

Abstract: Despite the regulation of the waste sector in Brazil having taken place more than ten years ago through the National Waste Policy, data related to the performance of municipalities at the national level are unknown. In this sense, this study aims to analyse the efficiency of urban solid waste management in 940 Brazilian municipalities and as specific objectives: to measure the efficiency scores of USWM the municipalities; analyse the performance of USWM considering the population factor, the efficiency factor, the type of management, the region and the federative unit of the municipality and present/compare the profile of the efficient and inefficient municipalities considering the socioeconomic and environmental variables and aspects related to the achievement of efficiency. The technique used was data envelopment analysis, involving three inputs: number of employees, number of vehicles and expense and two outputs: volume collected and population served. The results revealed efficiency in only 4.36% of the municipalities and an average performance equivalent to 0.32. The highest percentages of efficiency were identified in municipalities whose waste is managed by the mixed economy society, in those located in the North and Northeast regions and in those with populations above 500,000 inhabitants.

Keywords: urban solid waste management; efficiency; data envelopment analysis; DEA; Brazil; municipalities.

DOI: 10.1504/IJEWM.2025.148757

International Journal of Environment and Waste Management, 2025 Vol.38 No.2, pp.133 - 169

Received: 05 Apr 2023
Accepted: 06 Oct 2023
Published online: 23 Sep 2025 *

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