Analysis of solid urban waste management in the Rio de Janeiro State municipalities and the role of landfills in the environmental impacts decrease

Abstract

The urban solid wastes are among the most important types of waste, due to the high quantity produced and the environmental impacts as consequence. This work aimed to study the urban solid wastes management in the Rio de Janeiro state. The data used was acquired from reports from 2010 to 2014 provided by the Secretaria de Estado do Ambiente (SEA) and based on the summary report from State Solid Waste Plan of Rio de Janeiro (PERS) launched in 2013. The final disposal of urban solid waste, per municipality and by state region, and the recycling of household solid waste were analysed. It was found the decreasing dumps number and controlled landfills and the increasing use of sanitary landfills for Rio de Janeiro municipalities in the period of 2010-2014. The region that has the highest percentage of municipalities that use sanitary landfills as the primary destination for trash is the Serrana Region. In the Fluminense Northwest region, all municipalities put their urban solid waste fully in dumps. More than 60 % of municipalities do not follow the urban household waste for recycling and the percentage of waste recycled is very small in most municipalities. The decrease in number of dumps probably occurs due to the attempt each municipality to fit in the National Policy on Solid Waste. However, most of them still failed to tailor the legislation.