QUALI-QUANTITATIVE ASSESSMENT OF GENERATED REJECTS OF THE WASTEPICKER COOPERATIVES OF RECYCLABLE MATERIALS IN GOIANIA COUNTY, BRAZIL

Abstract

One of the major barriers of the selective collection projects has been the amount of waste arising from the sorting processes carried out by waste picker cooperatives. One of the reasons has been the poor separation of recyclables by the population, who often send disposable diapers, food scraps or other materials that beyond contaminating make the recycling destination unfeasible. Another reason has been the poor quality of sorting by waste pickers, who in many situations end up separating higher value materials for sale over low value materials or not seeking buyers for others that could be traded.There aren’t many data about the qualitative and quantitative characteristics of rejected materials during the sorting process of recyclable materials in cooperatives of pickers. In this sense, this work is based on the qualitative and quantitative study of the generated waste in five cooperatives of recyclable pickers studied in the city of Goiânia, Goiás State, Brazil. In order to estimate the amount of waste that goes in to the cooperatives and those rejected for them, it was concluded that the specific weights were respectively 36.5 kg/ m3 and 65.2 kg/m3. Regarding the rejected pile, most of the disposed materials can be characterized as potentially recyclables, among which, the percentage of plastics reaches a rate of 38%. Given the current scenario of the recyclable market, taking into account those commercially profitables (thermoplastics and mixed papers), such index reached about 40% of the rejected wastes, a fraction that represents about 22% of all waste discharged in cooperatives. Against the recyclables are organic (with 15.2%) and rejected wastes (with 13.5%). In short, 28.7% of the total intended for cooperatives should never have reached to them. Analyzing, in general context, it was observed that most of the wastes that arrive in the cooperatives, about 54.6%, are from rejected materials, either due to poor quality of materials, lack of market for recycling, low market value or lack of knowledge of pickers about the recycling potential of these materials.