Analyzing the economic viability of a large-scale integrated model of municipal solid waste: a study case for the most important Brazilian economic region

Abstract

Despite the National Policy for Solid Waste (PNRS) in 2010, nothing has changed to waste disposal in Brazil. Planned to reach 100% of all Municipal Solid Waste (MSW) collected and treated in landfills by Aug. 2nd, 2014, until nowadays, 42% of this total remains in dumps. Even the most important national economic region treating its urban waste in landfills, what it has is no more than 4% of recycling and its landfills reaching the exhaustion. Building other ones is getting harder year by year, due to water reservoirs around the region, high freight costs, waste disposal and the severe control of emissions associated with its logistics. This article comes to break the paradigm of investment and profitability proposing an alternative to the land-use, achieving higher rates of recovering. The economic viability, carried out through well-known financial variables and Monte Carlo analysis, has taken into account proven local waste characteristics and market prices for recyclables and energy without subsidies. Even considered a proposal highly intensive in capital and people, the revenues from the sales would be enough to guarantee the viability of 100% equity with IRR of 33.7% and ROI of 24.5% per year within the confidence of 99%.

Impacts of a large-scale model of Municipal Solid Waste: An Input-Output analysis for the largest Brazilian metropolitan region

“…Following the rational adopted by REIS NETO [ 5 ] which will be described as it was in his published article avoiding any misunderstand, the gravimetric composition assumed to MRSP's MSW is the one used by Municipal Environmental Sanitation Service of Santo Andre, a social and economic representative city from MRSP. Even being a data from 2008, it fits with IPEA [ 22 ] study performed four years later, where MRSP's waste composition is shown.…”

“…Following the rational adopted by REIS NETO [5] Mass amount fractioned in wet and dry portions was as an idea of how much is possible to recover from a simple sorting. Without any additional process (washing and drying), recyclers would buy recyclables (metal, plastic, glass, and paper) compacted and in bales.…”

“…Based on an large-scale model of an integrated urban waste treatment proposed to the MRSP by REIS NETO [ 5 ], this article presents measurable socio-economic, energetic and environmental impacts within circular economy logic. In short, the model consists in a mechanical selection of recyclables (waste sorting to separate and compact metal, paper, glass, and plastic), biological organic composting (bio-process to produce fertilizer), and a thermal treatment process where remaining waste, called Refuse Derived Fuel (RDF), is burned to produce energy (see Figure 1 ).…”