Long way to go

Last year, the Law 12.305/2010, referring to the National Policy of Solid Wastes, completed seven years. And the question is: What now?

Although the challenges are great and real, in a country with continental dimensions and many operationalization problems of the law, one thing is undeniable: this law indicated questions that we can’t be ignore. There is no possibility to not recycle wastes.

The waste monetization movement, besides being salutary, is something that moves an own market inside the productive chain of recycling. A classic example is the aluminum cans, a type of waste that reaches very high recycle rates (98%). With this index, Brazil is considered a global reference. Who wouldn’t recycle them?

Another important point: who would think about ground and dispose the “garbage” without any control nowadays? Discard used vegetal oil in the sink drain? Even with a lot of information, with a first-world regulatory framework, many of these situations still happen.

Therefore, the first conclusion we have in these seven years of the law validity is that we have never talked so much about solid waste in Brazil and it has never been divulged as much as the best environmental practices should be adopted. However, at the same time, we are realizing how much still needs to be done in practice.

Unfortunately, we have seen that a large part of the waste isn’t being collected yet, being disposed in vacant lots, water places and public roads. To top it all, great part of the recyclable wastes is still being sent to landfills, reducing the lifespan of them, since that, in fact, the landfills should receive just the residues, that is, those things that can’t be reused anymore.

Even with these years in force, the institutions still overcome obstacles in relation of that. For the public authority, the greatest challenge seems to be the elaboration and, above all, the execution of the Management Plans of Solid Wastes, as well as the pairing of public environmental agencies to establish an effective supervision. The private sector still needs to improve the implementation of the reverse logistic and the understanding of the shared responsibility system. And, to conclude, it is up to the consumer to have the awareness, education, involvement, knowledge of his liability, as an important person in the selective collection system.

On this way, our third conclusion is about the necessity of constant dialogue between the public authority, the private enterprise and the consumer, so that the correct management of solid wastes is effectively implemented.

We need to understand that the management and disposal of wastes aren’t anymore an exclusive “problem” of the government. It is necessary to apply a new model of shared responsibility, whose success will depend on the comprehension of all the involved parts, be it who fabricate, sell, offer service, buy, in other words, everyone who generates the waste has its share of responsibility and should contribute to a greater good that is related to everybody.

Finally, we also note that the economic measures need to be adjusted to give support to the implementation of this method. This point can’t wait anymore. This is because, if we consider that the discarded wastes have already been taxed as products, is fundamental that a reduction of tax burden occurs in its return to the productive chain, but now as an input. Dismissing the recycling chain isn’t any favor, it is a fair and legally correct measure to avoid economic distortion, in which the products made from recyclable inputs begin to have a higher cost of production than the products made from virgin raw material.

Therefore, it is increasingly clear that Solid Waste will permeate public policies and economic and investment decisions for the next decades, since it is not only a problem of public power, industry or commerce that are generating this waste, but it involves the consumer, changes the routine of some activities, creates new opportunities in the recycling chain and is something that must be thought and evaluated with responsibility.

We hope that the next seven years be made of many accomplishments.

Telma Bartholomeu Silva
Chiarottino e Nicoletti Advogados