Análise da gestão dos resíduos sólidos urbanos da cidade do Recife-PE a partir de indicadores de sustentabilidade

Abstract

The management of solid urban waste is an activity directly related to sustainability, since it involves aspects related to environmental, social and economic issues. The operationalization of sustainable development in the management of this waste is linked to the use of measurement mechanisms of all dimensions involved. Sustainability indicators can work for these purposes as they aggregate and quantify information seeking to assess sustainability. The objective of this work was to study sustainability indicators based on the gravimetric qualification and volumetric quantification of solid waste in the city of Recife, Brazil, in order to determine clusters to support a more sustainable management model. For this, the bibliometric study determined the adequate sustainability indicators to be studied in the context of solid urban waste management; Afterwards, the volumetric and gravimetric data of the waste glass, HDPE, PVC and PET plastics, Styrofoam, newspaper / magazine, textile, metal and paper / cardboard from the city of Recife-PE were transposed to sustainability parameters, in which statistical analyzes were carried out to collect inferences; National policies were also analyzed to point indications of the presence of indicators as a methodological proposal. The results showed that the ecological footprint was the most appropriate indicator to be applied in the study. In this way, the quantitative and qualitative data of the residues were used to obtain the ecological footprint values and from them the main components analysis and hierarchical grouping were done. The multivariate analysis showed that the variables related to plastics compose with greater intensity the component that explained the majority of variance of the Footprint data, followed by glass and metal residues, later the textile waste and paper / cardboard. The Grouping Analysis formed five subgroups similar to each other and distinct from the others, and the subgroups formed were influenced by the higher or lower footprint values for the set of materials. The evaluation of environmental legislation, which guides public policies for solid urban waste in the country, does not evidence the presence of sustainability indicators as a methodological proposal for management. In this way, the use of sustainability indicators, notably the Ecological Footprint, can be a tool to assist the construction of sectoral solid waste management models, so as to observe particularities and characteristics of each region regarding the environmental impact that wastes can cause. In this sense, the present study seeks to outline possible new inferences to improve the management of solid waste.