SELECTIVE COLLECTION: THE HIRING EXPERIENCE OF MACEIÓ COOPERATIVES

Abstract

The National Solid Waste Policy, instituted by Federal Law 12,305 of 2010, has established the prioritization, by the government, in the hiring of cooperatives/association  of collectors of reusable and recyclable materials for the performance of selective collection services in the municipalities. In this sense, in 2017, a City Hall of Maceió, through the urban cleaning management agency, hired 4 (four) waste pickers cooperatives resident in the municipality to carry out selective collection  door-to-door in 11 (eleven) neighborhoods and at points of Voluntary Delivery authorized, in addition to environmental education actions. Monthly, the cooperatives are paid for the service provided. In this context, the present work aims to demonstrate the experience of hiring recyclable waste collectors' cooperatives in the city of Maceió, comparing the data between the previous and the subsequent year of contracting, as well as expose the main difficulty found. The information were obtained through the data’s collected from the Municipal Superintendence of Sustainable Development, as well as visits to agencies and as cooperatives. Observe, after being hired, an increase of 100% in the population affected, 60% in the amount of recyclable material sold and 40% increase in the number of cooperatives. As for the participation of the population in selective collection, it is clear that there is a need to strengthen environmental education actions and tax incentives in the community, in order to increase adherence and improve the use of waste, in order to minimize the amount of waste.