by Dr Atilio A. Savino
Urban solid waste is defined as the waste generated by households, businesses, industries, institutions and markets, as well as the waste coming from the cleaning of streets and public areas. The waste generated by businesses and industries has similar characteristics to the waste originated in households.
Although from an outsider’s perspective it could be said that the cities of Latin America are facing a critical situation as regards waste management, which is leading to a disturbing level of environmental deterioration, it must also be appreciated that in recent years there has been a positive change, aided by economic development and the institutional progress of the sector.
Framework of waste management implementation
Concern over the urban solid waste situation goes beyond the local and national sphere, and is an issue for international summits related to sustainable development.
In Chapter 21 of Agenda 21, developed as a result of the United Nations Conference for Environment and Development (held in Rio de Janeiro in 1992), goals were set to reach waste collection and final disposal levels of 50% by 2005 and 100% by 2025.
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Compliance with the Millennium Development Goals (United Nations members’ goals set for 2015) also implicitly entails the improvement of waste management systems’ conditions. These goals aim for poverty reduction, more inclusive education systems, improvement of access to the health system and basic sanitation, and reduction of the number of people living in slums.
More specifically, at the national level, and within the sphere we are analyzing, this is reflected in the establishment of regulations creating a legal framework for the sector as well as the development of public policies and the creation of national waste management plans.
The urbanization phenomenon
The growing urbanization process in the region is of course responsible for the ceaseless increase of waste generation. The increase in population and its concentration in cities is a Latin American characteristic, being the most urbanized region in the planet. The highest percentage belongs to what is known as South America with 83% of its population living in cities. Currently 90% of the population in Argentina lives in cities.
 Informal recycling in Buenos Aires |
A parallel phenomenon is the emergence of the megalopolis, i.e. cities to which a huge suburban chain has been added, constituting a large metropolitan area. The largest cities are Mexico City with 18.2 million inhabitants, Sao Paulo with 18.1 million, Buenos Aires with 13 million and Rio de Janeiro with 10 million. (2002 population data)
Institutional and legal framework
In all countries of the region, the responsibility for urban solid waste management services is municipal. This responsibility covers tasks related to regulating, financing, administering and operating these services.
At this level, one of the biggest weaknesses of the system emerges. Those responsible for waste management are not supported with the resources they require to do the job efficiently. From a financial perspective, there is an insufficient budget allocation and a low collection rate of the fares aimed at this service; and from a technical perspective, there is a limited amount of staff training.
However, it seems that a beneficial change in the chain of command is beginning to take place. There are growing participation levels from provincial and national government who are not only concerned with passing laws and regulations intended to establish national compliance standards, but also with the promotion of the waste sector’s development and providing financial support to update the system. Regionalization and grouping of municipalities has also started to have a positive effect when seeking common solutions aimed at taking advantage of economies of scale.
Another piece of good news is the rising level of social participation as a result of a variety of initiatives, for example: the incorporation of environmental education both in the formal educational system and in the informal one; NGOs that have become prominent in environmental issues by means of programmes supporting micro-businesses and citizen participation; and the creation of co-operatives designed for solid waste management. Supplementing this, public and private universities as well as institutes devoted to education and training have developed courses designed to strengthen the national and local capacity for waste management.
Associations for the sector’s professionals and technicians are starting to emerge, together with representatives from private companies, universities and municipalities, who have been put in place to monitor this sector. It is worth mentioning the associations with a regional outreach – as well as all the national associations – such as AIDIS, Asociación Interamericana de Ingeniería Sanitaria y Ambiental (Inter-American Association of Sanitary and Environmental Engineering) which is involved with the sector’s issues through its Technical Division on Solid Waste (División Técnica de Residuos Sólidos, DIRSA), and ISWA, the International Solid Waste Association, which has regional development networks – with headquarters in both Sao Paulo and Buenos Aires – and assists with training and technological transference. It should be highlighted that ISWA has directly assisted in the development and creation of the National Strategy for the Integrated Management of Urban Solid Waste (Estrategia Nacional para la Gestión Integral de los Residuos Sólidos Urbanos, ENGIRSU) created by Argentina’s national government.
The private sector is no less relevant. There is a growing level of private participation in delivering services as contractors or concessionaires. Its contribution is essential, not only for its capacity to finance projects, but also for its ability to provide the latest technologies and fully-trained staff.
It is also important to highlight the participation of international, multilateral and bilateral organizations, which participate at different levels financing investment projects and providing technical and educational solutions, as well as supporting the establishment of public policies. Among others, the following should be mentioned: the World Bank, PAHO/WHO (Pan American Health Organization/ World Health Organization), ECLA (Economic Commission for Latin America), USAID (United States Agency for International Development), GTZ (Deutsche Gesellschaft für Technische Zusammenarbeit) and JICA (Japan International Cooperation Agency).
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As regards the legal framework, it is not the lack of regulations that distinguishes the region, but rather the lack of co-operation among different legal organizations and the overlapping of different government levels which in many cases brings about the duplication of powers and rights. At best this generates inefficiency within the system, at worst it could cause a multitude of problems.
In countries with a federal government, such as Argentina, Brazil, Mexico and Venezuela, the states or provinces have not delegated power to the national state to legislate on environmental issues. However, recently important progress has been made in national laws which establish the promotion of systems for the integrated management of urban solid waste.
Waste generation
The direct relationship between the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and the total mass of generated waste is well known to everyone. If we link the GDP per capita with waste generation, we may observe the evident differences in its generation and composition according to income levels. As Latin America is a region strongly affected by its lack of equality in income distribution, we also find big differences in the quantity of the waste generated daily and in its composition. This difference does not occur only between countries, but also between cities in the same country, where we generally find, as at the global level, some urban centres are developed and others are at a developing stage.
Latin America generates around 522,000 tonnes of waste per day, its average being 0.90 kg/day per person. In fact, these figures are calculated by what is collected and not by what is actually generated.
In Brazil, 168,653 tonnes per day are generated, with a national average of 1.106 kg per inhabitant per day. In Brasilia, its capital, with 2,325,910 inhabitants, 3675 tonnes per day are generated, with an average of 1.58 kg per day per person.
In Buenos Aires, Argentina’s capital, generation equals 5191.87, its average being 1.5 kg per inhabitant per day. It should be noted that approximately 1,200,000 people arrive daily in Buenos Aires to go to work.
As regards collection coverage, it can be stated that it is almost 90%–95% in the big urban conglomerates and 70%–80% in middle- or small-sized cities (see Table 3).
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The greatest problem is final disposal. We can observe that only 30% of the collected waste has a sanitary and environmentally-sound disposal, and that the rest goes to controlled dump sites or open dumps.
According to the 2007 Outlook on Solid Waste carried out by ABRELPE, national member of ISWA, Brazil’s percentages are as follows: 38.6% in sanitary landfills, 31.8% in controlled dump sites and the remaining 26.6% in open dumps.
According to studies performed by ARS, national member of ISWA in Argentina, the percentages are as follows:
- adequate final disposition of solid waste in the metropolitan area of Buenos Aires (AMBA) at sanitary landfills 45%
- rest of Argentina 55%
- adequate final disposition in sanitary landfills 10%
- waste disposal in controlled sites 10%
- uncontrolled open air dumps 35%
In reference to the composition of the waste, the Regional Assessment Report on Municipal Solid Waste Management, published by PAHO in 2005, says: ‘The composition of waste in Latin America, although it varies among the different centers of population, maintains a strong component of foodstuff waste, with average values from 50% to 70% in weight, while around 25% of waste components is made up of paper, cardboard, metal, textile, leather, rubber and wood…’ It follows, ‘The in situ volumetric weight is an important factor when analyzing alternatives of solid waste management. This may vary from 170 to 330 kg/m3 without compacting and largely depends on the content of organic matter and its degree of humidity.’ It adds: ‘As regards its physical–chemical characteristics, it is noted its high percentage of humidity (40% to 60%) and its low heating value (less than 1.381 kcal/kg), which defines the low energy value of the region’s waste.’ Another important point is ‘The average of energy value and humidity of the region’s waste in general makes it impossible to obtain usable energy from incineration.’
As an example, we offer the composition of waste in the city of Buenos Aires – see Figure 1.
 Figure 1. Composition of waste in Buenos Aires |
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Recycling
Although the unquestionable contribution of recycling to the achievement of sustainable development is acknowledged, and there is a wide acceptance from society (a survey carried out in Buenos Aires shows that 83% of those interviewed agreed with recycling campaigns), and there is a legal framework promoting this activity, there are no relevant results derived from those in charge of managing these campaigns. Current figures show the recycling rate to be approximately 3%–5%.
However, there is an informal army of voluntary workers that systematically patrols the streets of various cities in Latin America, searching for recyclable materials.
The seemingly low levels of recycling are a consequence of political and economic crises that involved the majority of the countries in the region, and are entirely based on the lack of equity, poverty and the high rates of unemployment.
 Informal recyclers are increasingly being organized into workers’ co-operatives |
Once the political and economic stability was recovered, a process intended to dignify that job started, trying to protect the people’s health and to save children from having to perform this task.
A mainstream solution was the creation of work co-operatives bringing together informal recyclers, thus trying to initiate a formalization process. In general, these processes are speeded up as long as they have government co-operation in a financial sense to provide the necessary infrastructure (for example segregation plants). There are many examples of this throughout the region.
A really successful case is aluminium can recycling in Brazil. According to the report previously quoted, in 2006 Brazil recycled 94.4% of the total amount of aluminium cans for commercialized beverages in the country. The main sources of collection were co-operatives with 58%, depots with 13%, schools with 5% and supermarkets with 3%. These results place Brazil as the world’s leader in aluminium can recycling, preceded by Japan with 90.9% and Argentina with 88.2%.
In Brazil, the aluminium can recycling market handles approximately US $700 million annually, generating employment for 170,000 people.
The market’s size
There is no official data concerning the urban solid waste market’s size in Latin America. Making extrapolations from the information submitted in From Waste to Resource 2006 World Waste Survey, carried out by E. Lacoste and P. Chalmin, published by Cyclope, we may put forward data relating to the three main regional economies: Mexico, Brazil and Argentina.
The estimate for the above mentioned countries includes the following sectors of the urban solid waste market: collection, final disposal, composting and recycling. The approximate total for the three countries is US $2600 billion dollars, divided as follows: Mexico 1200 billion, Brazil 1000 billion and Argentina 600 million.
The permanent expansion of the market is due to the private sector’s growing participation in services related to collection and final disposal, through different types of contracts, concessions and public-private management.
This active incorporation of the private sector allowed the inclusion of technological advances as a result of the state-of-the-art innovations in each activity.
 Sanitary landfill Norte III, Buenos Aires |
In the big cities of the region, we may observe the use of up-to-date collection and sweeping equipment and, at the same time, the appearance of containers for the incipient recycling programmes.
In line with this, final waste disposal performed at big urban conglomerates is carried out following the standard practices used in developed countries. ISWA’s Working Group on Landfills has made a very significant contribution to the distribution of that information and its application.
In this sense, as a result of its magnitude, the following should be mentioned: in the municipality of Caieiras, the sanitary landfill owned by ESSENCIS company at present receives approximately 10,500 tonnes of waste daily, while the Norte III landfill, operated in the metropolitan area of Buenos Aires by TECSAN S.A. company currently receives approximately 10,000 tonnes daily.
Climate change and waste
Climate change is emerging as a major challenge for modern society. The basic mechanics of climate change are by now well understood. These are that the world is warming, much of this warming is due to human emissions of greenhouse gases, and the changes are set to accelerate in the future, bringing many and varied impacts around the world.
 In large cities, up-to-date collection is in operation and recycling containers are in use |
There will be temperature consequences. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s (IPCC) low scenario for global average surface air warming by the end of the 21st century is 1.8ºC, and its high scenario is 4ºC.
The IPCC judges it as very likely that hot extremes, heat waves and heavy precipitation events will become more frequent, as may tropical cyclones.
 Segregation plant |
The impact of climate change will vary by region but is very likely to impose net annual costs that will increase as global temperatures increase. Even conservative estimates have economic costs building up to 3% of global GDP annually by the time that temperatures have risen by 3ºC
Cost–benefit analysis indicates that abatement policies will have a clear economic pay-off, providing a rational basis for some sort of international agreement.
Government, business, and wider society will all be affected and all have a role to play in tackling it using these measures:
- improve public policies (government)
- technology innovation and new investment (private sector)
- change in consumption patterns (consumers)
- increased awareness (civil society).
The IPCC Fourth Assessment Report, as well as the Stern Review, have intensified the international debate on the basis of the seriousness of problem and the feasibility of solutions, and have also strengthened the efforts aimed at agreeing on a consolidated climate regime post 2012, by 2009.
The Fourth Assessment Report of the IPCC states that:
- waste generation is closely linked to population, urbanization and affluence
- in developed countries, seeking to reduce waste generation, a current goal is to decouple waste generation from economic driving forces such as GDP
- in most developed and developing countries with increasing population, prosperity and urbanization, it remains a major challenge for municipalities to collect, recycle, treat and dispose of increasing quantities of solid waste and wastewater
- post-consumer waste is a small contributor to global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions (less than 5%) with total emissions of approximately 1300 MtCO2-eq in 2005.
The largest source is:
- landfill methane (CH4)
- followed by wastewater CH4, and
- nitrous oxide (N2O)
- in addition, minor emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2) result from incineration of waste containing fossil carbon (C) (plastics; synthetic textiles).
The CH4 from landfills and wastewater collectively accounted for about 90% of waste sector emissions, or about 18% of global anthropogenic methane emissions (which were about 14% of the global total in 2004) .
Existing waste-management practices can provide effective mitigation of GHG emissions from this sector: there is a wide range of mature, environmentally-effective technologies that are available to mitigate emissions and provide public health, environmental protection, and sustainable development co-benefits. GHG generation can be largely avoided through controlled aerobic composting and thermal processes such as incineration for waste-to-energy.
 Figure 2. Regional distribution of CDM projects |
Moreover, waste prevention, minimization, material recovery, recycling and re-use represent a growing potential for indirect reduction of GHG emissions through decreased waste generation, lower raw material consumption, reduced energy demand and fossil fuel avoidance.
Finally, post-consumer waste is a significant renewable energy resource whose energy value can be exploited through thermal processes (incineration and industrial co-combustion), landfill gas utilization and the use of anaerobic digester biogas.
Having mentioned this, let us see how, through the Clean Development Mechanism, the countries in Latin America may improve their environmental performance in waste management.
The Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) is an arrangement under the Kyoto Protocol, whereby Annex 1 countries may invest in emission reductions in developing countries and use these to meet their own emissions reduction commitments.
 Figure 3. Distribution of registered projects by scope |
CDM projects thereby help these countries to meet their targets more cheaply, while incorporating developing countries into the Kyoto process without the need for binding emissions reduction targets.
Furthermore, the CDM transfers technology to developing nations and supports sustainable development goals. In this way, it represents the main response so far to the issue of equity in climate change policy-making.
There are currently 1056 registered CDM projects, with 2700 million tonnes of credits expected from current projects to 2012, and a total of 3000 projects in the pipeline. The largest developers of CDM projects are China, which hosts the greatest volume of projects, and India, which hosts the largest number.
Although the CDM has enjoyed considerable success in China, India, Asia in general and Latin America, its progress in Africa has been minimal. Buyers of CERs can either invest directly in CDM projects, or buy credits once they have been issued. There is also increasing interest in the CDM from the voluntary offset market.
The regulatory process around the CDM ensures that CERs are permanent and ‘additional’, i.e. credits are not given to projects that would have been undertaken anyway.
The projects related to the waste sector represent 21% of the projects submitted.
The total of CDM projects registered and approved by UN from Latin America and The Caribbean are today 358 out of a worldwide total of 1086; of those 358 projects, 91 are landfills. The potential emission reduction of those 91 projects will be until 2012 (first commitment period of the Kyoto Protocol) 111,790 million tonnes CO2e.
In conclusion
The best and most favourable social, economic and political situation in the countries of Latin America in general offers an action opportunity for the sector of urban solid waste.
From the perspective of public policies, it can be achieved by generating strategies for the integrated management of urban solid waste, creating and operating information systems for waste management, and promoting minimization, responsible consumption, clean production, segregation, recycling and other kind of programmes.
In order to accomplish and implement these policies effectively it is necessary to guarantee social participation. Formal and informal environmental education makes that participation possible, as well as the action of the sector’s NGOs and associations.
The active presence of the private sector is also critical, which may bring closer the possibility of using the technologies available and making the most of the alternatives introduced by the Kyoto Protocol.
Dr Atilio A. Savino is Vice President of ISWA
e-mail: iswa@iswa.dk
