O desafio da gestão dos resíduos sólidos e a necessidade de um modelo sustentável de financiamento

Abstract

This dissertation analyzes the financing of urban solid waste management services from the perspective of environmental taxation, focusing on the institutional context of Fortaleza, Brazil. It starts from the premise that the economic and financial sustainability of such services is a structural condition for sanitary and environmental efficiency, requiring funding mechanisms capable of ensuring revenue stability, distributive justice, and environmentally responsible behavioral incentives. The main objective is to assess the limitations of budget-based financing and to propose legal and institutional parameters for the design of an environmentally adequate service fee. The research adopts a qualitative approach, applying deductive reasoning and legal-institutional analysis, combining literature review, examination of national and international regulatory frameworks, empirical case study, and engagement with applied environmental economics and sanitation regulation scholarship. Findings indicate that general revenue financing presents vulnerabilities related to fiscal volatility, cost opacity, and lack of incentive signaling, while previous direct charging experiences based on property proxies exhibit referential and legitimacy weaknesses. Ancillary revenues were also found insufficient in scale and predictability to constitute a structural funding pillar. As a contribution, the study proposes a hybrid and progressive charging model combining a fixed component with a variable portion estimated through indirect waste generation indicators, coupled with social sensitivity measures and gradual transition toward direct measurement systems. It concludes that a properly structured fee, grounded in transparency, proportionality, and institutional governance, can reconcile administrative practicability with environmental justice and operate as both a sustainable financing tool and a mechanism for public value creation.