Municipal Solid Waste Management in Informal Settlements – A multiple-case study of challenges and possibilities in the favelas and informal sector of Rio de Janeiro city

Sammanfattning: Today, about one billion people in the world live in informal settlements and lack access to basic services and city infrastructure. In Rio de Janeiro, approximately 1,4 million people, one fourth of the city population, live in informal settlements, in Brazil called favelas. The insufficiency of the city’s waste services mainly manifests itself through accumulation of waste in public spaces in the favelas. A part of the waste management and recycling is carried out by waste pickers and waste pickers’ cooperatives. As of 2010, Brazilian law establishes systematic integration of their activities in the system to increase recycling. Contradictorily, the recycling rate only reaches about 1-2% of the generated waste in Rio de Janeiro, which can be compared to cities in other developing countries where this number is 15-20%. Therefore, the municipal solid waste (MSW) management and recycling system in the informal settlements of Rio de Janeiro are analyzed to identify main issues and, from a systems’ thinking perspective, suggest possible approaches to improve environmental protection and social inclusion in the system. The results are based on a multiple-case study with 10 participating community organizations and cooperatives in 7 different favelas. Data was gathered through semi-structured interviews and direct field observations. The study identified non-compliance of manufacturers, distributors and importers as one of the main reasons for the low recycling rate. The withholding of investments from these actors causes operational difficulties for the cooperatives and, together with an oligopsony market with low prices, this leads to the impediment of social inclusion and loss of income for many urban poor. The study also identified that a lower educational level among the residents, bad habits and too few collection containers contribute to the large generation of waste in the streets. Above this, steep hills and criminality influence disposal and collection of waste. The biggest differences between the formal and informal parts of the city are the frequency and type of collection. With the support from literature, approaches to mitigate the environmental effect after the accumulation of waste in the streets include clean-ups and improving the esthetics of the location. Approaches adapting to the circumstances of the current MSW and recycling system involve informal waste collection for community- adapted fees, door-to-door collection of recyclables in favelas and the creation of networks and partnerships within the informal sector. Pro-Poor Public-Private Partnership, where the local government employs favela residents to facilitate collection, fund cooperatives based on their specific needs and integrate them in the decision-making process, is recommended as approach for a larger systematic change. However, in the perspective of the widespread corruption in Brazil and slow development of the waste management system, the informal sector is urged to organize itself to join forces to improve the situation. The reliability and validity of the results could be increased by conducting more interviews, improving the interview and observation structures. Future research should focus on favela-specific improvement and the empowerment of cooperatives.