Proposta de índice de sustentabilidade operacional de aterros sanitários (ISOAS)

Abstract

In October 2010, Law 12,305/10, which established the National Policy on Solid Waste in Brazil, was sanctioned. Thus, the government spheres began a process of political, technical and legal articulation in order to reverse the scenario of urban solid waste management (MSW) in the country, until then marked by the inadequate disposal in dumps. However, the advance in the closure of dumps and the construction of landfills represents a new problem for society and the environment. The pulverization of final disposal areas, even if built in compliance with the most rigorous normative and legal standards, may represent risks to the environment and public health, especially due to a technically deficient operation and little harmony with the surrounding community. Thus, a constant assessment of the performance of landfills is required. This assessment should be based on management procedures, created and continuously measured under the pillars of sustainability. The proposed Sanitary Landfill Operational Sustainability Index (ISOAS) aims at this goal. Through the evaluation of indicators, verify the sustainability condition of landfills, as well as identify critical management points and map regional weaknesses in management. ISOAS has been divided into three groups of indicators: technical-environmental, economic and social-environmental. From a mathematical model based on the Triple Botton Line (TBL) concept, the values obtained from the analysis of each group of indicators are processed, obtaining a percentage value that represents the sustainability of the landfill under analysis. The valuation metric follows a meritocratic logic based on the awarding of stars supported on the performance obtained. The research had four co-participating landfills in the State of Rio de Janeiro, located in the municipalities of Nova Iguaçu, Seropédica, São Gonçalo and São Pedro da Aldeia. In the field, the objective was to critically analyze the constitution and handling of the methodological proposal, as well as to produce a portrait of the sustainability conditions of the co-participating landfills. It was found that using the tool it is possible to identify chronic and acute problems of the operation; identify factors limiting the level of sustainability and identify environmental perceptions of social groups, among other actions. The results from the application of ISOAS demonstrate that the landfill with the best technical-environmental performance was Santa Rosa CTR, with five stars obtained due to its effectiveness during the evaluation of this group of indicators, the landfill with the best economic performance was CTR. São Gonçalo, with three stars, the best social and environmental performance was the CTR Dois Arcos, with four stars and the best overall performance, effectively ISOAS, was achieved by CTRs Nova Iguaçu and Santa Rosa, both with three stars.