Indicadores de sustentabilidade aplicados a gestão dos resíduos sólidos urbanos: o caso do município de Crateús-CE

Abstract

One of the major environmental problems faced by society is the inadequate management of solid urban waste, as the rates of waste generation are increasing. An instrument that has great potential to help public management in this service are the sustainability indicadors, because through these it is possible to evaluate and highight the negative points presente in the management of municipalities, allowing adjustments, and at the same time maximizing the positive impacts. In view of this, the present work aimes to evaluate the sustainability of solid urban waste management in the municipality of Crateús-CE, through the application of a set of sustainability indicators. The methodology used for the elaboration and analysis of the sustainability was based on the proposal by Milanez (2002), with some adaptations being necessary to adapt to the current context of the municipality of Crateús – CE and to the National Policy on Solid Waste, given the publication predate this law. After choosing the methodology, data were collected to compose each indicator, through document research, visits to the landfill and the Crateús Association for Sorting Recyclable Materials (RECICRATIÚ), in addtion to semi-structured interviews with employees of the Municipal Secretariat of Environment and Municipal Secretariat of Infrastructure of the Municipality of Crateús. After obtaining the data, these were systematized and crossed in order to arrive at the individual and final scores. Indicators that reached a score of 5 were classified as favorable, unfavorable with a score of 3 and very, and very unfavorable with a score of 1. The following scale was created and followed to generate the municipal Sustainability profile: very sustainable (greater than or equal to 70%), not very sustainable (between 40% and 69%) and unsustainable (less than 39%). Among the 14 indicators applied, six were favorable, two unfavorable and six very unfavorable. Taking into account if all the indicators were favorable, they would result in a sum of 70, the value necessary for the municipality to obtain the percentage of 100% sustainability. The municipality obtained a sum of 42, resulting in a percentage of 60%. With this, the municipality was considered as not very sustainable since the result obtained was between 40% and 69%. From the results, suggestions for improvement were elaborated and sent to the municipal representative. It is expected that the municipality leverages the positive points found and works together with the negative ones in favor of its improvement, which can happen by making the adjustments suggested in this work feasible, aiming to reach the goal of 100% Sustainability.