Recycling potential of urban solid waste destined for sanitary landfills: the case of Indaiatuba, SP, Brazil.
The urban solid waste of the city of Indaiatuba (pop. 175 000), located in the state of São Paulo, was characterized, focusing on the recycling potential. For this purpose, collected waste was subdivided into 27 items, classified by mass and volume. About 90% of this waste was found to be potentially recyclable and only 10% requiring landfilling. The compostable organic matter, in the form of food and garden waste, both with high moisture content (51 and 41%, respectively), represents 54% in mass and 21% in volume. The most common type of plastic in this waste is high density polyethylene, whose estimated disposal is about 5000kgday(-1). A socio-economic analysis of the waste generation indicates that low-income neighbourhoods discard relatively less packaging and more food waste, shoes and construction debris than middle and high income ones, which may be due to low purchasing power and schooling. Our findings indicate that more aluminium and uncoloured polyethylene terephthalate is discarded in the warmest months of the year, probably due to a greater consumption of canned and bottled drinks.
Mancini
Sandro Donnini
SD
Environmental Engineering, Universidade Estadual Paulista-UNESP, Sorocaba, SP, Brazil. mancini@sorocaba.unesp.br
Nogueira
Alex Rodrigues
AR
Kagohara
Dennis Akira
DA
Schwartzman
Jonas Age Saide
JA
de Mattos
Tânia
T
D001938:Brazil; D002947:Cities; D003247:Conservation of Natural Resources / Q000191:economics; D004784:Environmental Monitoring; D004787:Environmental Pollution / Q000032:analysis / Q000191:economics; D012037:Refuse Disposal / Q000191:economics / Q000379:methods* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors; D018505:Waste Management / Q000191:economics