Title: Solid waste management in small municipalities: the case history of Pira

Authors: João Alberto Ferreira; Daniele Maia Bila; Elisabeth Ritter; Raquel Simões De Oliveira Franco; Sheila Dos Santos Valle

Addresses: Department of Sanitary and Environmental Engineering, State University of Rio de Janeiro, Rua São Francisco Xavier 524, 5029-F, Maracanã – Rio de Janeiro, Brazil ' Department of Sanitary and Environmental Engineering, State University of Rio de Janeiro, Rua São Francisco Xavier 524, 5029-F, Maracanã – Rio de Janeiro, Brazil ' Department of Sanitary and Environmental Engineering, State University of Rio de Janeiro, Rua São Francisco Xavier 524, 5029-F, Maracanã – Rio de Janeiro, Brazil ' State Environmental Institute, Avenida Venezuela 110, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil ' Superintendency of Solid Waste Management, Secretariat of State for the Environment of Rio de Janeiro, Avenida Venezuela 110, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

Abstract: Managing solid waste still remains a major challenge for local governments in the more than 4,000 Brazilian municipalities with less than 20,000 inhabitants. In Brazil, there is still a large presence of municipalities with poor residential trash collection, poor public cleaning services and waste disposal in open dumps. This paper discusses a successful experiment and presents the main steps taken during the last ten years that made it possible for Piraí, a small town with 26,000 inhabitants, to create an environmentally friendly and cost-effective management system for its solid waste with help from the Rio de Janeiro State University, which provided the necessary technical support. A sanitary landfill was constructed as the cornerstone of the system. The municipality renewed part of the collection fleet, reorganised the collection routes and improved the street cleaning system. A survey, the structure of which was developed by the university, was distributed among the population to learn of the main complaints from the inhabitants regarding urban waste management. One focus in the paper concerns the ongoing concern of the municipality to either keep improving or maintain a good management system of solid waste despite the change in mayors over the past ten years.

Keywords: urban solid waste management; small municipalities; developing countries; strategic plan; Piraí; Brazil.

DOI: 10.1504/IJEWM.2017.083969

International Journal of Environment and Waste Management, 2017 Vol.19 No.2, pp.135 - 147

Accepted: 21 Dec 2016
Published online: 28 Apr 2017 *

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