Avaliação das legislações e tecnologias de tratamento de resíduos sólidos e plásticos na União Europeia, EUA e Brasil

Abstract

The destination of solid waste is a problem that affects all nations, and the increasing and indiscriminate disposal on land and in the waters of rivers and oceans has caused environmental problems that are difficult to solve. Plastic waste has the aggravating factor of taking hundreds of years to decompose, and microplastics have affected the entire food chain. While the non-generation of plastic waste is almost a utopia, the implementation of new technologies and the modernization of legislation aimed at the disposal and treatment of waste with less environmental impact are of major importance for global sustainability. In this context, the objective of this work was to evaluate advances in legislation in the Western world, using the European Union, the United States, and Brazil as models, and to analyze technologies for the treatment and disposal of solid and plastic waste, comparing the degree of sustainability maturity among the nations studied. To achieve this, extensive research was conducted in official databases on legislation in these countries and in global literature, compiling and critically analyzing the data. As a result, it was observed, through the chronological timelines of the traced legislations, that Europe has always been at the forefront of the issue of plastic waste, showing a high degree of recycling (45%) and energy recovery (34%) aiming to reduce the use of landfills, which remains the primary disposal method in the United States (79%). Brazil, although making significant advances in legislation, has not yet been able to efficiently implement the outlined action plans. The country has incipient results with open-air or buried landfills, referred to as "lixões" and "aterro controlado", representing 39% of the final disposal of solid waste. In the evaluation of plastic waste disposal and treatment technologies, it is evident that recycling is the most efficient way to reduce environmental impacts caused by plastic. Mechanical recycling is currently the most worldwide used practice, despite its limitations, enabling the emergence of new treatment technologies, such as pyrolysis, one of the chemical recycling processes, which has been the focus of research and innovations aiming for greater cost-effectiveness and sustainability of processes.