As landfills fill up and recycling oppor-
tunities increase, more communities
across the nation are interested in reducing
waste disposal and its costs. City manag-
ers are considering a variety of strategies to
improve incentives to recycling and com-
posting, as well as to increase the variety of
materials that can be recycled or composted.
Currently, in most parts of the country,
garbage is removed once or twice a week
with revenues coming from a portion of
property taxes or from a flat fee-for-service
system that does not vary with respect to
the amount of garbage taken away.
Neither of these methods provides any
incentives to reduce waste, and, facing large
volumes of solid waste, areas using these pay-
ment methods have sometimes implemented
mandatory recycling programs to reduce the
volume of their solid waste stream.
Check Also
Waste management poses challenges, but could unlock major environmental and economic gains
Every day, the city of Rio de Janeiro, one of the largest metropolises in the Southern Hemisphere, generates 17,000 tonnes of waste, ranging from large industrial debris to candy wrappers bought innocently at newspaper stands. While this waste presents a serious and urgent environmental challenge, it also fuels an increasingly significant portion of the economy, with benefits extending beyond financial gains. - When we look at developed European countries, many are already recycling between 40% and 50%, with some reaching 60%. From an economic standpoint, both recyclable materials and organic waste hold tremendous value - stated Adalberto Maluf, National Secretary for Environment and Environmental Quality at the Ministry of the Environment (MMA), during the Methane Forum: Climate Emergency Brake, at the Rio Nature and Climate Week. Citing a 2025 report, Maluf mentioned that Brazil literally throws away R$27 billion annually, while municipalities spend significantly more - R$45 billion - managing all this waste, often overlooking the environmental impact or economic potential buried in landfills and dumps. - We spend R$45 billion to collect and dispose of waste in landfills, yet we manage to recycle less than a third of the potential. I believe it will be necessary to review contracts, create performance-based remuneration mechanisms, and pay for both effectively sorted materials and those diverted from landfills - he added. According to the IBGE, 60.5% of Brazilian municipalities adopt some form of selective waste collection, and several initiatives serve as examples of how to manage city waste. In his panel presentation, Bernardo Ornelas, Project Coordinator at the Rio de Janeiro Municipal Urban Cleaning Company (Comlurb), highlighted Ecoparque do Caju, a national benchmark in waste management and recycling. There, received materials are sorted and can be used for biogas production, organic compounds for urban gardens, or human consumption, in the case of still...
Web-Resol Tudo sobre Limpeza Urbana e Resíduos Sólidos!