Projection, potential and managerial alternatives for solid waste management in municipal consortia

The study aimed to develop an intermunicipal system for integrated waste management in order to assist the implementation of an intermunicipal consortium between the eight municipalities of the Costa do Descobrimento, southern Bahia, Brazil. The qualitative and quantitative evaluation of waste generated in the urban environment, the definition of per capita generation of waste, estimated population projection over a twenty-year horizon through the use of different mathematical models and spatial analysis of the territory for the prioritization of criteria for the definition of arrangements were carried out. The results showed that 75% of the municipalities in the studied region do not have initiatives based on the hierarchy of prevention, reduction, reuse, recycling, treatment, or environmentally adequate disposal of municipal solid waste, and only the collection and removal from urbanized areas is carried out. The projected population for 2042 is 399,866 inhabitants, an increase of 34% in relation to 2022. Daily production will reach 459 tons/day in 2042, an increase of 26% in 20 years and the recycling potential of the collected solid-waste will be 110,989 kg/day. The projections resulted in the proposal of two optimized intermunicipal arrangements (public and public–private partnership), both with a single final waste disposal unit and another 26 waste management units, thus enabling significant gains in scale and technical, economic and operational sustainability. The characterization of the waste generated in the municipalities and the identification of the problems to be overcome, added to the regional characteristics, with the public–private partnership being a more viable option in financial and operational terms.