Avaliação do inventário do ciclo de vida e laia dos resíduos sólidos em Shopping Centers: comparação de diferentes cenários

Abstract

The increase in the consumption of goods and services is one of the main factors contributing to the growth of solid waste (SW) generation, especially in the retail sector, such as Shopping Centers (ShC), known for producing large volumes and a wide variety of SW. This large generation of waste becomes a potential source of environmental impacts (EI), which makes it necessary for these establishments to minimize them through a waste management process. The objective was to assess waste management through the life cycle inventory (LCI) and the survey of environmental aspects and impacts (EIA) for different waste composition scenarios in a large ShC in the metropolitan region of Belo Horizonte, MG, Brazil. Three scenarios were analyzed: the covid period scenario generated in 2020 and 2021, the post-covid period scenario generated in 2022, and a proposed waste management scenario to reduce its EI and increase recycling and composting, based on the national goal of recycling 48% of waste (28% of recyclable inorganic waste and 20% of composted organic waste). The amount of SW generated in 2020 and 2021, marked by the covid-19 pandemic, was lower compared to 2022, which saw a 22.84% increase compared to 2020. Nevertheless, little change occurred in the destination to the sanitary landfill, which was higher in both scenarios. In the LCI analysis, the proposed scenario proved to minimize EI, as greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions were lower than in the covid and post-covid scenarios (24.19% and 21.66%), due to the increase in composting, which replaces CH4 emissions (more polluting) with CO2. Leachates and sludge were also minimized by 9.33%. In the EIA analysis, the scenario with composting again showed positive results in reducing significant EIs. Thus, to adequately minimize the EI of solid waste management, the ShC needs to increase source segregation, especially in food court areas, to increase the amount of waste sent to recycling and composting and reduce what goes to landfills.