Selective waste collection in the city of São Paulo: urban public services under the neoliberal logic

Abstract

The aim of this study is to analyze the influence of the neoliberal logic on São Paulo’s municipal selective waste collection program. The study analyzed a set of public hearings and events that discussed waste management in São Paulo to understand the discourses, views and actions undertaken by the actors that form the system. Results showed that the neoliberal logic has been present in the agenda of all the municipal administrations since the beginning of the selective collection program in the city, whether they assume center-right or center-left positions. The consequence of this is a tendency to make technocratic choices that, under the arguments of “modernity” and need for “technological solutions”, end up being centralized in technology, socially exclusionary, and inefficient.

Critical analysis of the guandu river basin preservation through sustainable methodologies in combating the burning of solid waste

“…With the perspective of a selective collection [33] [35], generating an adequate destination of organic waste and obtaining as a final product a high-quality waste [34] [40], the Ciclo Orgânico allows the maturation of a more accurate environmental conscience [41], leading to the replacement of retrograde thinking, not only of burning of in natura waste, but also the use of chemical fertilizers [56] [58].…”

“…The choice of selective collection as a preventive methodology for the burning of in natura garbage in urban and rural properties around the Guandu River basin, consists of a planned, organized and systematic action of sorting waste [33] [34], allowing the propagation of an environmental education and a correct analysis of the waste produced, for its future disposal [33] [35].…”