The Environmentalist, 26, 21Ð29, 2006 C 2006 Springer Science + Business Media, Inc. Manufactured in The Netherlands.

A Successful Pilot Project of Decentralized Household Management in Brazil

MANFRED FEHR* Federal University, P.O. Box 811, 38400 974 Uberlandia, Brazil

Summary. Present municipal paradigms in Brazil do not allow for flexible approaches to solv- ing an extremely dynamic problem. This discusses the basic flaws in present thinking models of residents and municipal administrators. Fundamental arguments presented on municipal solid waste relate to nomencla- ture, destinations, definitions, logistics, social dynamics, social assistance programs, education and employment philosophies. In each case, the consequences of the stalemate are explained in terms of the unsustainable situation of constantly growing landfills. In sequence, a proactive thinking model is presented and explained that has the potential of drastically reducing landfill size. It is called Municipal Transit Material Processing. The model has been tested successfully in small communities and is now available for scale-up. The landfill diversion achieved stands at 62% of household waste in comparison with 15% theoretically possible in Brazil with selective collection models. Although of necessity the arguments apply directly to Brazil, the basic ideas behind the reasoning may be extrapolated to other Southern countries. The following simple example will illustrate to the reader the type of paradigm inversion the paper proposes to convey. The classical political slogan in Brazil is “get children out of garbage dumps”. The inversion proposed and explained is “do away with garbage dumps”.

Keywords: Brazil, divided collection, environmental education, landfill diversion, life cycle, municipal solid waste, sustainable waste management, thinking models, transit material

Introduction land areas, this practice also leaves open the life cycles of all materials contained in MSW. The author’s research and practical experience with In an effort to move MSW management sig- municipal solid waste (MSW) management in Brazil nificantly beyond today and envisage permanent have shown the urgent need for new thinking models. progress toward sustainability, proactive thinking Present paradigms are stalemate. They do not allow models are developed, applied and tested. Their mean- for flexible approaches to solving an extremely dy- ing is described, and the necessary management ef- namic problem. This paper discusses the basic flaws fort is dimensioned. The fundamental target pur- in present thinking models of residents and municipal sued in this work is the drastic reduction of land- administrators. Their models do not use landfill diver- fills. Both biodegradable and inert fractions of MSW sion as a priority and thus, will not lead to a sustainable are addressed. A desired division of responsibili- future. The theory of ecological footprints (Rees and ties between public administration and private ini- Wackernagel, 1996) is invoked here and applied specif- tiative is discussed. Experimental work is reported ically to MSW in order to argue against the practice of at the level of schools and apartment buildings. The continued landfilling. Apart from taking up increasing landfill diversion potential at each level is deter- mined, and the success rate is measured. The ob- jective of this paper is to illustrate how proactive * E-mail: [email protected] thinking and decentralized management models can 22 Fehr reduce the ecological footprints corresponding to The collection frequency is fortnightly. In order to MSW. Decentralization is the heart of the contri- overcome the cultural barriers to the use of such a bution, and responds to the fatality that centralized system in Brazil, the authors have devised their simpli- municipal waste management models have largely fied decentralized waste management model described failed in Brazil, notwithstanding a few honorable hereafter. exceptions. The existing literature on the topic of landfill diver- Present paradigms: the problem statement sion contributed ideas to this research. Wong (2003) and Poon (1997) describe the footprint size of MSW This section will list the existing paradigms and explain in Hong Kong where 13 closed landfills already oc- the inherent flaws. cupy 1.3% of the urban area. Pitot (2003) reports on source separation of organic in Delhi, where composting has resulted in significant landfill diver- Nomenclature. The wording is a critical factor. Peo- sion rates. Niemeijer (2002) discusses the environmen- ple cling to classical expressions that represent and tal sustainability index and makes recommendations perpetuate thinking patterns of the past. MSW man- for its use. Gerbens-Leenes and Nonhebel (2002) ar- agement is a dynamic discipline. A significant amount gue that the land requirement for food and garbage of research is being conducted on the subject all over depends more on consumption pattern than on pop- the world. New concepts and solutions constantly ap- ulation growth. This idea is in agreement with the pear in the literature (Wackernagel and Yount, 2000; present author’s claim that sustainability is not a demo- Glasby, 2002). The opportunities for municipal ad- graphic, but rather an educational issue. Herendeen and ministrations to innovate are abundant. In the not too Wildermuth (2002) develop three resource-based sus- distant past, the words waste and garbage adequately tainability indicators that locate a community within represented the sum-total of all items that the user no the global context. Glasby (2002) comes closest to this longer needed and threw away. The connotations of author’s quest for new thinking patterns when he de- , , and recovery were absent, not to men- velops scenarios of environmental collapse in the 21st tion that of land area required for dumping. Times century. The reduction of landfill area, which is the have changed. Land area has become sparse and re- object of the present study, ties in with the footprint sources are depleting. The time has come to intro- concept proposed by Wackernagel and Yount (2000), duce new expressions into every-day conversation in in as much as landfills inadequately occupy bioproduc- order to adapt thinking patterns to the new situation. tive space. The implementation of a pro- Words are needed that convey the idea of a closed gram for a university campus is described by Mason life cycle. Transit material is one possible denomi- et al. (2003), and sustainable demolition waste man- nation used by this author until a better term can be agement is the subject of a study by Klang et al. found. (2003). Button (2002) develops ways to use economic and environmental indicators in city management. The Shenzhen declaration (2002) contains a request to all Destinations. The change of name from MSW to municipalities for treating and recycling all wastes as MTM (municipal transit material) is only part of the part of ecological sanitation programs. Several cities process. The natural destination of waste was the land- worldwide run sophisticated waste management pro- fill. The very name transit material implies a tempo- grams whose discipline and dedication requirements rary destination or an intermediate holder from the mo- on the part of residents are presently not achievable ment the resident discards it until the moment the re- in Brazil. As an example, the City of Halifax, Canada cycler puts it to a new use. So the destinations landfill requires from its residents the use of four different and dumpsites are out of context in present-day cir- destinations for household waste with the inherent cumstances, as they leave material life cycles open. To source separation effort (City 2005). Those destina- any resident, the correct destination of his or her transit tions are: the organics green cart for biodegradable material is the retailer who will know what to do with waste, the blue bag for inert recyclable waste, the reg- it. Retailer here is the first instance of the reverse com- ular refuse bag for an extensive list of non-recyclable mercialization chain. As the destination now is a per- material, and the city depot for hazardous waste items. son instead of a piece of land, a whole new relationship A Successful Pilot Project 23 develops between resident and retailer and their mer- incorporating the informal retailers in its waste man- chandise, the transit material. agement model. The lack of integration impairs the success of the model. Logistics. In order to complete the new thinking pro- cess, the reverse commercialization chain has to be Centralized commands and controls. As was argued assimilated. It comprises the same logistics as the clas- with respect to logistics, centralized waste manage- sical forward chain where the product travels from ment models are successful in Northern countries, but the manufacturer to the wholesaler, then to the re- are not functioning in Southern countries at this time. tailer, and finally reaches the consumer. Transit ma- The reasons are many. A few examples from Brazil terial travels in the opposite direction, closing the loop will illustrate the failures. Administrators are not in the and the life cycle. The resident represents the starting habit of interacting with the people they are supposed point with the corresponding responsibilities. Just as to govern. Management models taken from books or the manufacturer in the forward chain puts into circu- foreign experiences are copied. Selective collection of lation a product of accepted quality, the resident in recyclable items is one case in point. As in Northern the reverse chain, if properly educated, may be in- countries the inert portion of MSW represents approx- duced to observe a convenient ritual when he or she imately 70% by weight, attention to this portion may presents the transit material to the retailer. In Third produce reasonable results in terms of landfill diver- World countries like Brazil, transit material retailer, sion. In Southern countries the inert part of MSW is in formerly called garbage picker, has become an es- the order of 30% by weight, and the remaining 70% tablished and widely accepted professional occupa- is biodegradable waste. Models copied from the North tion. It will not be long before it is officially rec- of necessity lead to insignificant diversion potentials. ognized and registered, just as other more classical Attention to visual items is another case in point. It is professions. very easy for an administrator to decide that colored To readers from the North, it might be useful to ex- selective collection bins be placed at street corners and plain the concept of retailer in this context. Centralized to assume that this will induce all residents to deposit management systems such as that operational in Hal- all their pre-selected waste correctly in the appropriate ifax (City 2005) rely on bulk collection by city crews bin. The author has observed this game even on uni- using large vehicles. Detailed instructions to residents versity campuses. The bins have been there for years by various media, including the internet, form the basis without producing the desired result. The administra- of success. In the Brazilian context, where municipal tors have not been held responsible for the public funds planning has not yet reached the stage of presenting spent on fabricating the bins. The most important man- an integrated system and explaining it to residents, the agement challenge refers to the biodegradable part of whole recycling operation is in the hands of informal MSW. In the best model proposed by city adminis- retailers who pick up the material at the residences and trations so far, this part integrates the regular refuse negotiate it with wholesalers. The city administration portion and is taken to the landfill. Various city admin- does not make use of this large informal workforce istrations have tried to sort this refuse before tipping because it does not recognize its potential, and the res- with the theoretical target of retrieving recyclables and idents do not cooperate with the retailers due to the composting the rest. Large amounts of public money absence of environmental consciousness. The integra- have been invested in the corresponding facilities, but tion is lacking. Every stakeholder proceeds as if the they all failed to produce the desired result and were others did not exist. closed. Consequently, all the refuse is now being tipped What are the social dynamics behind the reverse without sorting. The model was unable to attain land- chain? It is driven by market forces of supply and de- fill diversion figures in excess of 15%. Outsourcing mand and consequently, can be and effectively is run of the collection and tipping operations is one more by private initiatives. The very existence of the large re- case in point. The city administration contracts a pri- tailer community testifies to this fact. No public funds vate company for this service and pays by the ton. are required to support it, except for certain admin- This system offers no incentive to the company for istrative measures, which will be described shortly. diverting material from the landfill; much to the con- The problem again is one of perception. The munici- trary, the more material tipped the higher the payment pal administration does not perceive the necessity of received. The last case in point in the present list is the 24 Fehr educational process required to make the citizens be- This decentralized model is now operational in the have in a certain desired way. Handing out pamphlets City of Araguari where it was implemented in coopera- at street corners has been tried without success. No tion with the Environmental Department. The number serious attempt has been made to reach individual res- of test communities is growing constantly. Other cities idents with the message about the continuous growth have of late perceived the advantages of this type of of the landfill. model. The City of Uberlˆandia operates a retailer co- The foregoing examples may serve to testify to operative as a modest starting point, and in the City the fact that centralized waste management models of Costa do Sau«õpe (2005) all hotels are taking their have largely failed in Brazil. New thinking and differ- biodegradable waste to a common composting station. ent models are urgently required to handle the MSW These are examples of decentralized waste manage- problem. ment models that open up interesting prospects in the process of substituting the unsuccessful centralized ones. Ecological footprints of MSW: looking into the future Proactive thinking: finding workable solutions

The footprint concept eloquently demonstrates the Municipal administrators, residents and researchers consequences of unrestricted landfilling, which is still face the challenge of overcoming stalemate paradigms the basic waste management tool in Brazil. The aver- in order to reduce the environmental footprints of age generation rate of MTM from households and food MSW. This author in particular uses the following cita- stores stands at 1.0 kg per person per day in Brazil, ac- tion from Albert Einstein as starting point: A problem cording to this author’s own research. Extrapolated to cannot be solved with the type of thinking that cre- a city of half a million people, this amounts to 500 tons ated it. Consequently, existing paradigms are mentally per day of landfill growth. This author likes to use the eliminated, and the thinking process starts at zero. The analogy of the parallel planet to illustrate how mate- following example will illustrate the type of manage- rial is transferred continuously from our main planet ment model that can result. to the parallel planet without return in sight. As total In Brazil there exists a national government spon- space is fixed, the parallel planet grows, and the main sored program to get children out of garbage dumps. planet shrinks at the rate indicated. Both concepts, the Audiovisual material is distributed and events are or- footprint and the parallel planet, may be called upon to ganized that show the inconvenience of having chil- show to lay people how the mental transformation of dren pick garbage. The type of thinking that created MSW into MTM can move their city closer to a sus- the problem is that there always were and there always tainable place where their offspring will be able to live will be garbage dumps. Proactive thinking inspired by comfortably. This author has insisted on the concept Einstein will find ways to manage the garbage with- of decentralization to pragmatically target landfill di- out resorting to open dumpsites accessible to children, version potentials above 70%. The success relies upon or to ascertain that the garbage arriving at those sites inclusion of private initiative in the development of ex- contains no usable items to be retrieved. Then children ample cases that may be imitated. Small communities will stay away naturally. The means are those indi- have been selected to set the examples. They are apart- cated in previous sections: change the nomenclature, ment buildings and schools. The emphasis has been change some definitions, find new destinations, rethink put on the model of divided waste processing (DWP), the logistics and modify social dynamics. Looks sim- which requires only two bins: one for biodegradable ple. Where does the procedure have to start? At the ori- items and the other one for all the rest. In order to over- gin of the material: the residences. What is expected come the low level of environmental consciousness of of residents? They can obviously not be expected to the average resident, the source separation effort is as- completely change their life style. The model needs to sisted by previously chosen and trained members of the be as simple as possible to be understood and prac- respective communities. In the case of apartment build- ticed without effort. Here is what this research work ings those people are the condominium employees, and asked of residents: first, understand that if you keep in the case of schools they are teachers and handpicked throwing away 1 kg per person per day of trash, very students. soon the city will run out of space to deposit it; second, A Successful Pilot Project 25 what you call trash or garbage is really transit mate- funds that could be put to more noble applications in rial. It does not really have to be dumped. There are the city. Consequently, knowing the value of the op- uses for it. All you have to do is put the biodegrad- portunity cost, arguments may be found to apply this able material in a separate bag from all the rest. The same amount to subsidizing some refuse items in order existing logistics will take it from there. Any resident to divert them from the landfill. No additional expenses with a minimum of common sense will understand will occur. this. In addition, another change of wording has been As a result of the argumentation presented and introduced. Residents are identified not as waste gen- the experimental data collected in this research, one erators, but rather as waste producers. This subtle dif- possible solution to the waste management problem ference brings across the concept of ownership. The advocated by the author is the decentralization of man- resident is held responsible for the destination of his agement practices and the inclusion of all existing or her product, which needs to be passed on to a taker. private initiatives into the model. The mixed garbage bag is not attractive to retailers and thus, cannot be regarded as a useful product, although Experimental: results of decentralized initiatives it is generated in the residence. The next step is to rethink the retail procedure. Items The decentralized model is being applied partially with a high commercial value may be collected and in the City of Araguari, where residences and grade easily sold to wholesalers by individuals. Even small schools are included, in modified forms in some other quantities produce financial return. In Brazil this is the Brazilian cities, and completely in apartment buildings case with aluminum cans and cardboard. They disap- in the City of Uberlandia where this research origi- pear from the sidewalk within minutes after display. nated. Table 1 is the result sheet from one apartment They do not even require proactive thinking, as long building in Uberlandia. As may be appreciated, the to- as they are not mixed with biodegradable material. tal diversion of material from landfill stands at 62% Proactive thinking is needed to take items with low by weight. It is the maximum presently achievable by commercial value, including biodegradables, to appro- individual initiatives like this one, without any sup- priate destinations. As the prices are low, they have to port from the City Administration. As was explained be compensated by magnitude of scale. Large quanti- above, the remaining 38% by weight at present go to ties need to be gathered and stored temporarily until a landfill and consist of two fractions termed adminis- profitable sale can be realized. This is a perfect oppor- trative and educational trash by this author. Adminis- tunity for cooperatives, associations of retailers that trative trash refers to items in the inerts bag that are not dispose of storage space and manpower for collection attractive to retailers. Here are some examples: Multi- and sorting. layer packaging containers are bought by wholesalers There will be a remainder: that portion of transit at approximately USD0.01 per kg, a price not inspir- material the retailers do not take, for whatever reason. ing to retailers. Light bulbs have no takers at all. Wood This is the only part demanding intervention of the pub- of all kinds has no commercial value in this chain. It lic administration. It corresponds to 38% of all tran- will have to be transferred to the energy matrix of the sit material in Brazil, as determined by this research. city in order to find takers. The same is true for ther- Proactive thinking within the municipal administration moset such as isopor. Educational trash refers should find ways to dispose of it. A few obvious op- to mixed material, biodegradable and inert, which, be- tions are: subsidize it to make it attractive to retailers, cause residents mixed it, lost its commercial value. incinerate it, sort it some more, or tip it. Any intel- In order to assist the reader in fully appreciating the ligent municipal administration will easily device its contents of the table, entries for April 17 will be briefly own model. The concept of subsidy might cause ob- explained. Totalmaterial collected was 103 kg and con- jections from readers who are still trapped in the old sisted of 72 kg or 70% raw biodegradables and 31 kg thinking models. The new concept cannot be treated or 30% raw inerts. These values are called raw because satisfactorily within the scope of this paper, but the they represent the source separation done by residents. idea is as follows. There are land, handling, tipping and The 72 kg of raw biodegradables undergo a second sep- maintenance expenses for a municipal landfill, which aration by the janitors, which results in 43 kg or 60% are functions of tipping rate. Those expenses are op- clean material to be handed to the client and 29 kg or portunity costs of the landfill in as much as they tie up 40% educational trash displayed for collection at the 26 Fehr

Table 1. Implementation of the divided transit-material processing (DTMP) model in the Condominium Complex CELT, City of Uberlandia, 43 apartments, 170 dwellers. Measurement error ± 1 kg. Result sheet. Year 2003. Month 04 = April, month 05 = May. month 04 04 04 04 04 04 04 05 05 05 day 15 16 17 22 23 24 25 07 21 26 Averages total generated (kg) 95 60 103 213 110 57 93 50 73 157 101 humid part (kg) 77 46 72 157 89 45 67 40 54 116 humid part (%) 81 77 70 74 81 79 72 80 74 74 76 biodegradables diverted (kg) 41 30 43 91 56 31 47 23 41 70 educational trash (kg) 36 16 29 66 33 14 20 17 13 46 dry part (kg) 18 14 31 56 21 12 26 10 19 41 dry part (%) 19 23 30 26 19 21 28 20 26 26 24 recycled dry material (kg) 11 8 24 41 11 8 176517 administrative trash (kg) 7 6 7 15 104941424 total diverted (kg) 52 38 67 132 67 39 64 29 46 87 total landfilled (kg) 43 22 36 81 43 18 29 21 27 70 total diverted (%) 55 63 65 62 61 68 69 58 63 55 62 total landfilled (%) 45 37 35 38 39 32 31 42 37 45 38 dry part diverted (%) 61 57 77 73 52 67 65 60 26 41 58 humid part diverted (%) 53 65 60 58 63 69 70 46 76 60 62 curbside to be taken to the landfill. The 31 kg of raw presently be diverted, the City can achieve a maximum inerts undergo a second separation by the appointed total landfill diversion of 14%. The cooperation of this regular retailer, which results in 24 kg or 77% clean author’s research team with the Environmental Depart- material he or she commercializes and 7 kg or 23% ad- ment has lead to tackling biodegradable waste in order ministrative trash useless to the retailer and therefore to raise the diversion potential. In line with the de- also left at the curbside. Upon summing up, on April centralized concept, grade schools have been targeted. 17, 2003 the condominium diverted 43+24 = 67 kg or Students have been trained to bring pure biodegrad- 65% of its garbage (transit material) from the landfill. able material from their homes or from their neighbors’ The last column of the table shows the average values homes to the school where a New Zealand type com- of the most significant items for purposes of general posting bin has been constructed. The students take the discussion. matured back home to be applied in the gar- As the City Administration did not spend one cent den. This feedback motivates both students and parents on the diversion of 62% of the transit material, it is to continue the operation, which is in its second year only fair to expect that it will make an effort to take now. Other grade schools have expressed interest, and care of the remaining 38% by using tax money, oppor- the students themselves take care of multiplying the tunity cost accounting procedures or managerial meth- applications. ods. The merit of the complete model just described The experiment in Uberlandia clearly demonstrates is that it produces measurable landfill diversion rates, the competitive edge of the complete model, termed such as 62% by weight in the case at hand. None of DTMP (divided transit-material processing) by the au- the cities that use modified forms of this model, or thor, for managing both biodegradable and inert frac- models of their own, have so far reported this type of tions, over any version that only contemplates inert measurement. material. It also demonstrates certain inevitable fluc- The City of Araguari operates with the part of the tuations in the generation of transit material. They are model that refers to inert material. A retailer coopera- due to circumstantial factors such as day of the week, tive was formed with premises for sorting and bailing holidays, parties, visits, and absence for travel. Table 1 of material. The members call on residences with man- shows the average collected daily quantity of tran- ual traction vehicles and collect inert items separated sit material to be 101 kg in this building, which is for them by the residents. Apart from this, the coopera- made up of 76% biodegradable and 24% inert matter. tive operates voluntary deposit sites in the City for the This composition is in agreement with values deter- same inert material. As the inert material represents mined for the whole city in previous research (Fehr 24% of total transit material, and as 58% of it may and Castro, 1999). After the additional sorting by the A Successful Pilot Project 27 janitors, 62% of the biodegradable and 58% of the enters into the reverse logistics chain and is not being inert material, representing 62% of total waste pro- tipped at the landfill. Whatever this client leaves be- duced, reach the recycling barrels and are effectively hind is the regular refuse. It is moved to the curbside taken away by the retailers. The remaining 38% of to- for collection by the city crew. tal waste produced corresponds to administrative and Two fundamental aspects make this model dif- educational trash, as described above, and is left at the ferent from those operational in Northern countries. curbside for collection. Firstly, in tropical climates it is impracticable to col- lect biodegradable material only every two weeks. Two to three days is the maximum tolerable period. As for Operational details of the DTMP model the inert material, it would be perfectly possible to store it for longer periods, but the apartment buildings The research behind the concept of decentralization were not designed to allow for this. There is simply no started with the selection of an apartment building in space available for storage. After two days, the central Uberlandia and a school in Araguari as test communi- point reaches its storage capacity. This ties. In the apartment building, contact was made with fact naturally identifies the apartment residents as pro- the building administration, explanatory visits were ducers, and not as retailers or wholesalers with profit programmed with all dwellers, and separate contain- aspirations. Secondly, the large community of private ers for humid and dry material were made available. retailers makes waste management relatively easy for The collaboration was not and will never be complete. building administrators. They pass by daily to pick up At first, the research team assumed the task of com- whatever is available, and the building administration pleting the separation at the central waste deposit in does not need to worry about the final destination or the building. After initial training, the janitors took the market value. All market research is done by the over. As the quality of source separation improved, retailers. As long as the humid—dry source separation their task became progressively simpler, but to keep is guaranteed, the material naturally disappears into up this quality, constant feedback and insistence with the reverse logistics chain. residents is necessary. The model has now been oper- ational for two years with the typical results shown in Table 1. Various arguments are continuously used with Timeframes for scale-up: the management the residents to maintain their participation. They are: challenge In the apartments as well as at the collection points in the building, the odor problem has been eliminated The model was introduced to the apartment dwellers by the humid—dry separation procedure. The landfill by the author through visits and circular letters. The diversion achieved is constantly made known to res- building employees were instructed on how to col- idents so they can develop pride in their exercise of lect and sort the material. For several days, the author citizenship. One resident assumed the responsibility participated in the sorting process. Retailer clients for of the operation and improves the system whenever both humid (biodegradable) and dry (inert) fractions new ideas appear. Each family now has its own pail to were contacted and made familiar with the system, af- deposit the biodegradable material. The janitors’ task ter which they passed by daily to take their material. A has been reduced to collecting all the pails and trans- complete learning curve for lay people has been pub- ferring their contents to a barrel that is picked up daily lished elsewhere (Fehr and Calcado, 2001). Suffice it by a regular client. It so happens that this client is a to say here that the result of 62% landfill diversion for a farmer who uses the material on his pig and chicken community of 170 people was achieved with 1 person- farm as food ingredient. An alternative would be to month of dedication. This number corresponds to the find a client interested in compost production. What theoretical value read from the curve. It may be used really matters to the building administration is the fact for extrapolation, such that the effort and timeframe that the material finds users and is not being taken to for other buildings or town sectors can be established. the landfill. The inert material is left at a collection Any interested city administrator has to accept the fact point on each floor from where the janitors take it to that without this personal dedication, the model cannot another barrel that is put at the disposal of a regular re- be implemented. What is the challenge? It consists of tailer. Here again, the important fact is that the material motivating more and more small communities to adopt 28 Fehr the decentralized management model. This means in- Conclusions tense interaction with people through personal contacts and constant feedback. In every chosen community, A new nomenclature inspires new attitudes toward one person needs to be identified who assumes the re- trash. It replaces the expressions waste and garbage sponsibility of operating the model and establishing by transit material, which instills the notion of further the contact with the retailer community. This concept uses. is quite different from simply placing colored bins at The divided transit-material processing model is street corners and hoping for the best. The effort is presented that separately handles humid or biodegrad- probably the same, but the results are surprisingly dif- able portions and dry or inert portions of transit mate- ferent and can be measured. This research targeted the rial. establishment of the decentralized pilot model and the The model is applied to apartment buildings in the illustration of its operational details. The extrapolation City of Uberlandia where 62% landfill diversion is to successively larger communities and eventually to achieved from strictly private initiative. the whole city are natural targets to be pursued in the The City of Araguari reports application of the future. model to the dry portion of transit material only with the possible result of 14% landfill diversion. The first grade school in that city is producing compost from Results and discussion biodegradable material, and other schools have ex- pressed interest in the system. New thinking patterns are experimented with. They Information is available to city administrators on are proactive because they look forward to discover the remaining 38% of transit material that private ini- solutions to dynamic problems without submitting to tiatives at present are unable to divert. paradigms of the past. The divided transit-material Proactive thinking applied to transit material for the processing (DTMP) model is developed and applied. first time reports a significant landfill diversion without The target of the research is maximum landfill di- using public funds. This aspect qualifies the model to version of transit material (TM). Present paradigms be used as a precedent to be imitated elsewhere. that obstruct this diversion are identified and over- The pilot project has demonstrated the type of re- come. Starting with a new nomenclature, moving on sults achievable with decentralized waste management to intense interaction with residents and TM retail- that places a minimum financial burden on the city ers, and working through individual initiatives with- administration. out waiting for orders from the municipal adminis- tration, a significant 62% by weight landfill diver- Acknowledgments sion is achieved with the model. It is also shown that for maximum diversion the model needs to include The City of Araguari Environmental Department pro- both biodegradable (humid) and inert (dry) fractions vided logistic support and supplied data to this study. of TM. For each fraction, clients are identified and served, such that the procedure does not depend on public funds. The application of the model produces References important information on those 38% by weight of TM that private initiative is not presently able to divert. Button, K.: 2002, ‘City management and urban environmental indi- Data and suggestions are available to city adminis- cators,’ Ecological Economics 40(2), 217Ð233 trators with respect to managing that part by public City of Halifax Waste Management Information (2005), available at www.halifax.ca/wrms on January 10, 2005. intervention. Costa do Sau«õpe: 2005, Processing the biodegradable waste (in Por- To the best of the author’s knowledge, this is tuguese), Saneamento Ambiental on-line, S˜ao Paulo, No 191 the first time that a significant landfill diversion re- (January 11) www.signuseditora.com.br sult for municipal transit material from strictly pri- Fehr, M. and Calcado, M.R.: 2001, ‘Divided collection model for vate initiatives is reported. This aspect testifies to the household waste achieves 80% landfill diversion,’ The Journal of Solid Waste Technology and Management 27(1), 22Ð26 success of proactive thinking and to the competitive Fehr, M. and Castro, M.S.M.V.: 1999, ‘Municipal waste analysis edge of the decentralized model over other recycling induces management model (in Portuguese),’ Saneamento Am- procedures. biental 10(55), 38Ð41 A Successful Pilot Project 29

Gerbens-Leenes, P.W. and Nonhebel, S.: 2002, ‘Consumption pat- Pitot, H.A.: 2003, Source separation of organic wastes proves feasi- terns and their effects on land required for food,’ Ecological ble in a Delhi “Basti”, Internet Conference on Ecocity Develop- Economics 42(1Ð2), 185Ð199 ment, United Nations University, February to June 2003, sym- Glasby, G.P.: 2002, ‘Sustainable development: The need for a new posium 3-C, paper F09, www.ias.unu.edu/proceedings/icibs/ paradigm,’ Environment, Development and Sustainability 4(4), ecocity03 333Ð345 Poon, C.S.: 1997, ‘Management and recycling of demolition waste Herendeen, R.A. and Wildermuth, T.: 2002, ‘Resource-based sus- in Hong Kong,’ Waste Management and Research 15(6), 561Ð tainability indicators: Chase County, Kansas, as example,’ Eco- 572 logical Economics 42(1Ð2), 243Ð257 Rees, W.E. and Wackernagel, M.: 1996, ‘Urban ecological foot- Klang, A., Vikman, P.A. and Brattebo, H.: 2003, ‘Sustainable prints: why cities cannot be sustainable,’ Environmental Impact management of demolition waste—an integrated model for Assessment Review 16(4Ð6), 223Ð248 the evaluation of environmental, economic and social as- Shenzhen declaration on ecocity development, Fifth International pects,’ Resources Conservation and Recycling 38(4), 317Ð Ecocity Conference, Shenzhen, August 23, 2002, www.ias.unu. 334 edu/proceedings/icibs/ecocity03/declaration.doc Mason, I.G., Brooking, A.K., Oberender, A., Harford J.M., Horsley, Wackernagel, M. and Yount, J.D.: 2000, ‘Footprints for sustainabil- P.G.: 2003, ‘Implementation of a zero waste program at a uni- ity: the next steps,’ Environment, Development and Sustainabil- versity campus,’ Resources Conservation and Recycling 38(4), ity 2(1), 23Ð44 257Ð269 Wong, M.H., (2003), Landfill restoration for sustainable waste man- Niemeijer, D.: 2002, ‘Developing indicators for environmental agement and land utilization, Internet Conference on Ecocity policy: Data-driven and theory-driven approaches examined Development, United Nations University, February to June 2003, by example,’ Environmental Science and Policy 5(2), 91Ð symposium 3-C, paper F13, www.ias.unu.edu/proceedings/ 103 icibs/ecocity03