Decision-making in the management of solid waste from small brazilian municipalities

Abstract

Current and future problems related to poor municipal solid waste management (MSW) have encouraged the search for integrated waste management through the implementation of public policies around the world. In Brazil, although the large municipalities are adapting more quickly to the national policy of solid waste, it is in the small municipalities that the majority of the population is concentrated, and consequently the majority of the MSW. Thus, this work created a decision-making aid model for municipalities under 100 thousand inhabitants in the search for integrated management through the application of the multi-criteria decision -making tool TOPSIS based on adapted life cycle assessment (LCA) data. It was observed that the implementation of alternatives based on biological treatment is preferable to the implementation of heat treatments. In spite of these results, the increase in criteria in this model, as well as the application of the LCA in the location itself or in plants of a similar size, would bring more reliable results.