Municipal solid waste treatment in Brazil: A comprehensive review

Estimates show that the world generates around 2.01 billion tons of municipal solid waste (MSW) each year, of which 33% is not managed properly. This demonstrates the urgent need for strategies to address the growing rate of MSW generation worldwide. Municipal waste collection, treatment and final deposition are among the important issues in the agendas of public administration. Brazil, like other developing countries has to develop its political policies to handle efficiently the MSW treatment. A significant part of the municipalities are still facing serious difficulties to eradicate dumping practices and implement adequate waste treatment routes. As a contribution, this review presents the actual scenario and future national plan for MSW for the period 2024-2040 including efforts to waste minimization, recycling, sanitation, and closure of polluted landfills, incentives to recovery of landfill gas, composting, and recovery of energy from MSW. Recent data shows that the actual MSW generated in Brazil in 2022 is about 81.8 million tons of which 76.1 million tons were collected (93.0%). Of the collected MSW, 46.4 million tons (61%) were deposited in sanitary landfills and about 29.7 million tons (39%) were sent to dumps. The recycling and composting activities were 1.12 million tons (or 1.47%) and 127,500 tons (or 0.168%), respectively. The new National Plan of Solid Waste, Planares, establishes among other targets, the elimination of controlled dumps and dumping sites starting from 2024 and the increase of the recovered MSW to 48.1% by 2040.