Regional Distance Routes Estimation for Municipal Solid Waste Disposal, Case Study São Paulo State, Brazil

Laryssa Morais, Victor Nascimento, Silvio Simões and Jean Ometto
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Laryssa Morais: Institute of Science and Technology, São Paulo State University (UNESP), São José dos Campos 12247-004, Brazil
Victor Nascimento: Remote Sensing and Meteorological State Center (CEPSRM), Rio Grande do Sul Federal University (UFRGS), Porto Alegre 91501-970, Brazil
Silvio Simões: Institute of Science and Technology, São Paulo State University (UNESP), São José dos Campos 12247-004, Brazil
Jean Ometto: National Institute for Space Research-Brazil (INPE), São José dos Campos 12227-010, Brazil

Energies, 2021, vol. 14, issue 13, 1-14

Abstract: The urban population increase in the world, the economic expansion, and the rise in living standards associated with society’s habits and lifestyles accelerated the municipal solid waste (MSW) generation in undeveloped countries, such as in Brazil, in which the generation increased by 25% from 2012 to 2017. In the same period, the São Paulo state, the richest Brazilian state, increased its municipal solid waste generation by 51%. All this MSW needed to be collected and transported, and this process has a high economic and environmental cost. Therefore, this study aims to identify, using spatial analysis, the routes used by MSW trucks to estimate the distances traveled to dispose of the MSW on a regional scale considering all municipalities in the São Paulo state. The findings showed that the landfill numbers decrease, mainly individual ones, which receive MSW only from the city where it is located. Otherwise, the consortium landfills number is increasing, as well as the number of municipalities that share the same disposal site. Consequently, the distances to transport MSW from urban areas to final disposal sites increased by about 55% from 2012 to 2017, reaching 613 million kilometers during this period. This total distance is sufficient to make more than 12,806 laps on Earth and contribute to high fuel consumption and greenhouse gas emission.

Keywords: landfills; municipal solid waste management; geographic information system; routes (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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