Conceptual and Guiding Guidelines of the National Solid Waste Policy (PNRS)

In a dynamic world, we witness diverse transformations, both in our daily lives and in the environment. Therefore, it is essential to understand the environment as something separate from our daily lives, considering only green areas and natural landscapes. The environment should be understood as all places where we may find ourselves or in which we may engage in some action or activity.

From this perspective of the concept of the environment, we must understand that our actions and activities impact the environment, just as we are impacted by it. Disciplines such as "Geography and Landscape Dynamics" and "Applied Ecology" typically address aspects that demonstrate these cause-and-effect relationships, whether in terms of social, spatial, or cultural transformations, or in terms of environmental transformations. In this article, we will focus on the individual and collective anthropogenic actions that are linked to the production of solid waste.

Throughout this course, we will understand how our consumer relations are linked to solid waste production. We will also address Solid Waste Management as an Environmental Management tool, to comply with Brazilian constitutional principles. We will address how Waste Management operates legally, operationally, and logistically. We will address all these attributes based on the National Solid Waste Policy - Law No. 12,305 of August 2010 - which guides, coordinates, and regulates Solid Waste Management in Brazil. But before we delve into the legal system, imagine yourself in a shopping mall. Upon arrival, you receive an unlimited card, with which you can buy whatever you want, however you want. Make your purchases and don't worry about the bill, because it won't arrive. You can buy products, services, and have fun as you please. This is the context of our foundation: consumer relations.

Consumer Relations

The allusion to shopping with an unlimited card aims to introduce what we call consumer relations; from these stems the entire issue associated with Solid Waste Management. Who wouldn't want to have an unlimited card and buy whatever they want? Many of us would buy items we already own, exchanging them for a newer, more modern, or better version. Others would reflect on the need for the purchase at that moment, postponing the consumption of that product or service for a more opportune moment. It is from this perspective that we understand that consumer relations are established as we need or want a product or service and pursue it. Therefore, our consumer relations are determined by need, desire, or interest and are also influenced by the behavioral patterns we consume on social media and in everyday life.

From this perspective, when we consume, we generate waste and rejects, and we need to understand, considering Law 12.305/2010, the substantial difference between the two terms. In Article 3 of the Law, we have:

XV – Waste: solid waste that, after exhausting all treatment and recovery possibilities through available and economically viable technological processes, presents no other possibility than environmentally appropriate final disposal;

XVI – Solid waste: material, substance, object, or good discarded as a result of human activities in society, whose final disposal is carried out, proposed to be carried out, or is required to be carried out, in solid or semi-solid states, as well as gases contained in containers and liquids whose particularities make their discharge into the public sewage system or into bodies of water unfeasible, or require technically or economically unfeasible solutions in view of the best available technology;

  From the legal excerpt, we understand the substantial difference between the two terms. According to the law, rejects are items whose recovery possibilities have been exhausted; on the other hand, waste is items that can be recovered through various processes or reintegrated into the production chain through the Circular Economy. These two terms give rise to two other extremely important terms: disposal and destination. Let's understand the difference between them based on the law.:

VIII – environmentally appropriate final disposal: orderly distribution of waste in landfills, observing specific operational standards to avoid harm or risks to public health and safety and to minimize adverse environmental impacts;

VII – environmentally appropriate final disposal: waste disposal that includes reuse, recycling, composting, energy recovery and use, or other disposals permitted by the competent bodies of Sisnama, SNVS, and Suasa, including final disposal, observing specific operational standards to avoid harm or risks to public health and safety and to minimize adverse environmental impacts;

According to the PNRS (National Policy on Recycling and Waste Management), disposal refers to how waste is treated — that is, the treatment given to items that cannot be reused. Conversely, destination refers to how waste is treated — that is, the path it takes for reuse. Note that the law includes the phrase "environmentally appropriate" for both terms. By this inclusion, we understand that both disposal and disposal cannot be carried out haphazardly and without considering the environmental impacts generated by the waste and residues we produce, and that both must follow the guidelines established by the agencies and entities responsible for regulating Solid Waste Management.

  After understanding the difference between waste and residue, let's focus on the life cycle of products. Considering the biological concept of life cycle, which reflects something that "is born, grows, reproduces, and dies," we understand, albeit generically, what happens to the products we purchase. Each product has a shelf life or a useful lifespan, whether due to wear and tear or obsolescence. Therefore, the law defines the product life cycle, which states:

IV – Product life cycle: series of stages involving product development, obtaining raw materials and inputs, the production process, consumption and final disposal;

With this in mind, we were able to finalize the introductory terms of the PNRS, which guide all Solid Waste Management in Brazil.

Waste Management as per Law No. 12,305 of August 2010

By understanding that products have a life cycle and that they must be disposed of at the end of their use or application, we can establish a connection with Management. When we speak of Management, we are referring to an administrative process linked to decision-making and decision-making risk analysis. We do this all the time. When we need to make a decision, we evaluate the possibilities and consider the results we can achieve with a given decision. Solid Waste Management is no different. This is a way of meeting the premise of art. 225 of the 1988 Constitution of the Federative Republic of Brazil, namely:

Art. 225. Everyone has the right to an ecologically balanced environment, a common good for the people and essential for a healthy quality of life, and it is the duty of the Public Authorities and the community to defend and preserve it for present and future generations.

and as an instrument to meet the Global Environmental Agenda, especially the agreements made during the Rio+20 International Conference in 2002, Brazil developed the National Solid Waste Policy in 2010, which defines and guides Solid Waste Management in the country. According to Law 12,305 of 2010 in its art. 1:

Art. 1 This Law establishes the National Solid Waste Policy, setting out its principles, objectives and instruments, as well as guidelines relating to the integrated management and administration of solid waste, including hazardous waste, the responsibilities of generators and public authorities and the applicable economic instruments.

Considering this, the Law defines in section 10 of art. 3 what solid waste management is:

X – Solid waste management: set of actions carried out, directly or indirectly, in the stages of collection, transportation, transshipment, treatment and environmentally appropriate final disposal of solid waste and environmentally appropriate final disposal of rejects, in accordance with the municipal integrated solid waste management plan or with the solid waste management plan, required under this Law;

We can see in the excerpt a complement to what we have seen regarding the disposal and destination of waste and residues, respectively. We note that Solid Waste Management reflects the decision-making and logistical organization to ensure the minimization of environmental impacts in the treatment of waste generated by society. In addition, in item 11 of art. 3, the Law defines Integrated Solid Waste Management as:

XI – Integrated solid waste management: set of actions aimed at finding solutions for solid waste, to consider the political, economic, environmental, cultural and social dimensions, with social control and under the premise of sustainable development;

When we talk about Integrated Management, we're not just considering the process of waste or rejects disposal, respectively. We're also discussing the development of regulations, standards, treatment, recovery, transformation, and reverse logistics technologies. The established quality and environmental health standards associated with waste and rejects must also be considered. Therefore, Integrated Solid Waste Management involves various public agencies and coordinates with the private sector, as we'll see below.

Solid Waste Management Characters in Brazil

When it comes to Integrated Solid Waste Management, we must first understand who the public figures associated with this management process are. Article 2 of the PNRS lists the public bodies involved in Integrated Management:

Art. 2º In addition to the provisions of this Law, the rules established by the bodies of the National Environmental System (SISNAMA), the National Health Surveillance System (SNVS), the Unified System for Agricultural Health Care (SUASA) and the National System of Metrology, Standardization and Industrial Quality (SINMETRO) apply to solid waste.

From this excerpt, we understand that Sisnama, SNVS, Suasa, and Sinmetro are the public agencies responsible for developing standards and guidelines associated with Solid Waste Management in Brazil, both about environmental and sanitary quality standards and the disposal of products, substances, and waste/rejects produced in all economic sectors in the country. The National Environmental Council (CONAMA), a consultative and deliberative body of SISNAMA, is responsible for the environmental standards that regulate the disposal or destination of waste or residues, respectively, as well as the agency responsible for parameterizing and defining the types of waste and rejects, as well as for establishing methods and methodologies for maintaining the environmental and social health of various environmental spaces, both natural and anthropogenic.

In parallel, SNVS, SUASA, and SINMETRO, besides working within their respective areas of jurisdiction to establish standards and parameters, seek to understand the life cycle of products, as discussed previously, indicating the best path to ensure the required health and environmental quality in the disposal of waste and rejects. However, they are not responsible for the reverse logistics associated with Solid Waste Management in Brazil. Before defining the relevant actors, we must understand how Law 12.305/2010 defines the Reverse Logistics process:

XII – reverse logistics: instrument of economic and social development characterized by a set of actions, procedures and means designed to enable the collection and return of solid waste to the business sector, for reuse, in its cycle or in other production cycles, or other environmentally appropriate final destination;

Therefore, we can understand that Reverse Logistics is the process that collects waste and rejects and provides the appropriate destination or disposal of the products. From this perspective, we understand that the people and companies responsible for collecting waste and rejects are key players in the reverse logistics associated with Solid Waste Management. When considering companies operating in reverse logistics, the Law provides guidance on sectoral agreements, which are described in the text of the Law in Article 3, item 1:

I – Sectoral agreement: contractual act signed between the public authorities and manufacturers, importers, distributors or traders, with a view to implementing shared responsibility for the product's life cycle;

From this excerpt of the regulation, it can be seen that sectoral agreements, signed between public agencies and private entities, aim to ensure the proper disposal of products collected through reverse logistics. The goal is to reduce the environmental impacts of waste and rejects, as well as establish ways to reuse them. Here, we can once again bring up the Circular Economy, a management structure employed by some companies in the battery, battery, and light bulb industry in Brazil, which aims to bring waste from their products into the producing company and treat it, reusing or transforming it.

Complementing sectoral agreements, we should point out that they are also signed with companies that collect waste from our homes, businesses, establishments, and production areas. Municipal and intermunicipal consortia involve contracting the company responsible for waste and refuse collection and defining the destination and disposal of the waste. These consortia are established through bidding processes structured by the government, in which numerous private companies can participate as bidders. The topic of bidding is beyond our scope but is guided by Law 14.133 of 2021.

It is worth adding here what is understood by social control, defined in item 6 of art. 3 of Law 12,305/2010, which states:

VI – Social control: set of mechanisms and procedures that guarantee society information and participation in the processes of formulation, implementation and evaluation of public policies related to solid waste;

According to Section VI, we understand that the public is an indispensable figure in defining the processes and sectoral agreements for Solid Waste Management, given that the entire management process impacts their routine and daily lives. Therefore, public authorities must encourage social participation throughout the entire process of defining municipal and intermunicipal Solid Waste Management.

Returning to the excerpt from Section 12 of Article 3 of the Law, we also see the establishment of individuals as figures in the reverse logistics process. We must understand that in a country with evident social inequalities, many citizens depend on waste and refuse collection for their very survival. Therefore, it is imperative to understand that waste has added material and monetary value, and its management impacts on the socio-environmental security of many citizens. Law 12,305/2010 and other legal systems have been modeled in recent years, including these characters of utmost importance for Solid Waste Management and as workers with dignity who deserve respect and humane treatment.

Consumer Relations, Sustainability and Solid Waste Management

In this text, we understand how consumer relations are associated with the generation of waste and rejects. We defined waste and rejects, as well as the difference between disposal and destination. We understood the life cycle of a product and how it relates to solid waste management. Furthermore, we conceived the structure of Integrated Solid Waste Management, its related actors, and processes. Furthermore, we were able to understand, albeit superficially, the environmental role of Solid Waste Management. In other texts, we will discuss CONAMA resolutions, where we will address the connection between waste and rejects and environmental quality and health, recognizing how these instruments are used to prevent environmental contamination and ensure a healthy environment for present and future generations.

Text based on Law 12,305 of August 2010, which establishes the National Solid Waste Policy.