Meio Ambiente

Brazil annually produces 155 thousand tons of urban garbage. Of this total, it is estimated that about 50% is disposed directly into open dumps, contaminating the soil, hydrographic basins, rivers and the sea, causing diseases and producing incalculable losses to the State.

On the other hand, these same residues are a source of livelihood for thousands of Brazilian families - the so-called scavengers (collectors) of recyclable materials, whose associations and cooperatives total over 34 thousand people across the country, joining another 800 thousand scavengers that, informally, also survive by collecting recyclable materials.

This reality, which still presents unfavorable results for health and the environment, should be amended with the approval of the National Policy on Solid Waste (PNRS) by the Senate. The new policy, which will define the general guidelines for the proper disposal of all kinds of garbage, determines, for example, how the performance of the business sector might facilitate the correct disposal of the residues. The PNRS will also require from the government entities a proper public management of the waste.

After 19 years, Brazil expects to approve a law that defines responsibilities and tools for the management of several types of solid waste, among them, electronic materials, for which there is still no federal law defining how the disposal might happen. The PNRS will define the general guidelines for waste management. Its regulation will be made later by presidential decree.

The proposal approved by the House of Representatives in March is the result of a broad consensus involving all the actors who are part of the many different cycles of production of solid waste. It deals with issues that are already part of daily routine of people, involving concepts such as contaminated area, the product life cycle, selective collection, social control, waste management, recycling, shared responsibility and urban cleaning services.

The new policy aims at the protection of public health and environmental quality, as well as at the adoption, development and improvement of clean technologies to minimize environmental impacts, and at the reduction of the volume of hazardous waste, amongst other actions.