Contratações sustentáveis em uma instituição de ensino superior: desafios e contribuições para a prevenção da geração de resíduos sólidos urbanos

Abstract

We are currently experiencing a serious socio-environmental crisis - a reflection of a development model based on the constitution of a consumer society and the habits, values and attitudes that sustain it. More than twelve years after the enactment of law no. 12.305/2010 - National Policy on Solid Waste, controlled dumps and landfills are still a reality in all regions of the country, bringing a visible scenario of socio-environmental degradation. On the other hand, the Brazilian State presents itself as one of the largest consumers in the domestic market, its purchases of goods and services occupy a considerable position in the Gross Domestic Product (GDP), in 2019 reached 12%.It is a global trend, and already consolidated in the Brazilian legal regulations, the adoption of sustainability criteria and practices in public contracts. These, in addition to being an essential activity for the State administration, it must contribute to Sustainable National Development. However, the effective implementation of sustainable contracts still presents itself as a challenge to be faced by the entire Public Administration. Considering that Federal Institutions of Higher Education have great potential to contribute in this aspect, the general objective in this work was investigating how the contracting of goods and services carried out by a Federal Institution of Higher Education (IHE) can contribute to the Prevention of Urban Solid Waste (USW) by the adoption of sustainability criteria and practices, in order to reduce the discard of these residues in the environment. As for the methodology, the research is classified as qualitative with an exploratory character. The theoretical construction, the results of the document analysis and the data from the questionnaire applied to the Institution's servers demonstrated, by the content analysis method, that IHE hiring generate several types of USW; that, up to the time of the research, the sustainability criteria and practices included in the notices were, for the most part, ineffective in terms of prevention of USW generation; the public servants involved in the planning of contracts are aware of the sustainability dimension importance in the bids and recognize that they can contribute to the USW prevention; furthermore, they are concerned with waste management on the IHE campus; so the practice consolidation of sustainable hiring can impact the USW prevention, but imposes actions such as: planning, public servants training, awareness of the academic community and suppliers, and editing internal rules. Considering the scarcity of studies and proposals that focus on the creation of instruments for the prevention of waste generation within the scope of public contracts, the study relevance is the possibility of contributing to the beginning of a gradual and effective process of including sustainability criteria and practices in the public acquisitions routine at the IHE studied, focusing on the prevention of urban solid waste generation, and the possibility of this practice being multiplied among other public institutions.