Resíduos sólidos urbanos e problemática ambiental: um estudo de caso em Porto Nacional, Tocantins

Abstract

The present study aimed to understand the conventional and selective collection, transport, and final disposal methods of urban solid waste in Porto Nacional, Tocantins, with a view to identifying whether the adopted and implemented practices reveal awareness and understanding of the environmental issues associated with urban solid waste. To this end, the research was based on bibliographic and documentary surveys, as well as field research, in order to obtain primary and secondary data. Initially, the research presents an analysis of how the terms garbage, urban solid waste and environment were represented in the texts of Porto Nacional's solid waste management plans, whose preparation and revisions are dated 2002, 2014, and 2023. Subsequently, based on the data from the aforementioned plans, the conventional collection is examined, identifying the agents involved and highlighting the difficulties, slowness, and constraints of the public administration; as well as the appraisal of attempts to implement selective collection, highlighting the actions of public authorities and the leading role of recyclable material collectors. Finally, the analysis of the final disposal of urban solid waste is presented, with an emphasis on identifying the agents and understanding the obstacles to the implementation of the municipal sanitary landfill and the definitive deactivation of the open dump. In Porto Nacional, despite the existence of legal frameworks, management plans, partnerships with collectors, and outsourcing of a large part of the services, problems related to collection, both conventional and selective, transportation, and proper disposal of urban solid waste persist. The adopted and implemented practices, mostly partially, have difficulties in complying with the current legislation, characterizing notorious slowness and political negligence, with the maintenance of inadequate practices, the slowness in adopting appropriate measures, the fragile articulation between the agents involved, including the outsourced ones, and the omission and neglect of public authorities in management, in the direct provision of services, in contracts, and in supervision, even under pressure from supervisory institutions, such as the Instituto Natureza do Tocantins and the Public Ministry of the State of Tocantins. Thus, the results do not express an in-depth awareness or understanding of the complexity of the environmental issue related to urban solid waste, nor are changes observed in the relationship between society and nature. These carry a strong component of political-economic, sociocultural, and environmental transformation.