Estratégias para definição de medidas mitigadoras em áreas degradadas pela disposição inadequada de resíduos sólidos urbanos

Abstract

Obstacles to mitigate degraded areas through the inadequate disposal of solid waste are: the lack of information on the environmental aspects that cause environmental degradation and; the lack of well-defined criteria to assess the conditions to which these areas are susceptible. These obstacles hinder technically and environmentally viable mitigation. By identifying this gap, this study work proposed a careful evaluation of the diagnoses of degraded areas due to inadequate disposal of municipal solid waste in Espírito Santo state, Brazil. Also, a selection of criteria/environmental aspects relevant for the classification of environmental conditions was performed. Therefore mitigation strategies were proposed, using a checklist and weighting the results through the Landfill Quality Index (LQI). The research methodology involved bibliographic, documentary research, and the application of questionnaires in loco. The results indicate that Espírito Santo has 192 areas degraded by inadequate disposal solid waste. Of these, 135 are due to deactivated “dumps”, of which, only 59 are in recovery status. In 100% of the areas, ordinance, monitoring and surveillance, waste compaction, leachate drainage and treatment, groundwater monitoring, geotechnical monitoring, and legal restrictions on land use were not verified. From this analysis, such criteria demanded the highest frequency of strategy propositions (448 citations), being highlighted as a priority to mitigation. So, the implementation of the suggested strategies would mitigate 48% of the verified environmental impacts. As a highly positive point, four areas are already 100% able to implement landfills, benefiting municipalities with long-term cost savings and autonomy in solid waste management. Additionally, the adoption of the raised environmental criteria allows the classification of the environmental conditions of several areas simultaneously. This permits the jointly implementation of mitigation strategies, enhancing the regularization of areas in advanced environmental degradation status.