Influence of implementing selective collection on municipal waste management systems in developing countries: A Brazilian case study

Abstract The aim of this study is to analyse the evolution of the municipal solid waste management (MSWM) system of Joao Pessoa (Brazil), which is one of the pioneering Brazilian cities to implement door-to-door selective collection programmes to study the effect of policy decisions in the last decade about selective collection. To this end, the present study includes the characterisation of the waste management system in this municipality from 2005 to 2015, and the analysis of the relation of these data with the socio-economic characteristics of the population in different city districts based on the data collected directly from the different stakeholders involved in the MSWM system. Our results are based on identifying the different socio-economic aspects that may influence the success of implementing recyclable waste selective collection programmes. This study also highlights the great deal of room for improvement in the selective collected waste ratio in Joao Pessoa as, in 2015, only 1.5% of generated recyclable waste was selectively collected. Spreading and improving awareness-raising campaigns throughout the city are key aspects that can improve this ratio, and the standardisation of registering information on the MSWM system is a basic issue to measure the system and to facilitate the undertaking of future analyses.