Household solid waste: influence of city size and economic class in southern Minas Gerais, Brazil

Abstract

The difficulty in creating a suitable solid waste management by local governments in southern Minas Gerais is due to a lack of information on the situation of quantification and qualification of generation. This study characterized the household solid waste (HSW) in the southern Minas Gerais and related it to the household economic power and size of towns. We performed 385 collections of HSW in 20 statistically selected towns, providing 5% margin of error, covering seven micro-regions, five different city sizes and three household economic classes (A - higher economic level, B and C - lowest economic level). Samples were collected from door to door during the winter and summer. The sampled population generates on average 0.471 and 0.582 kg hab-1 day-1 in the winter and summer, respectively. The largest amounts of HSW were of organic matter (65%) and recyclable or reusable (20%). Medium-sized towns are the largest generators of HSW in the region and larger towns generate more plastic waste thus evidencing their recycling potential. HSW generation is higher in class B households, while generation of recyclables is significantly higher in Class A households. HSW generation does not vary among the seven micro regions, proving that his study is useful for targeting actions to improve HSW management at regional and micro regional levels.