Avaliação da sustentabilidade de organizações de catadores de materiais recicláveis situadas na região do Seridó no Estado do Rio Grande do Norte

Abstract

The problems caused by the inefficient management of solid waste are considered one of the biggest challenges related to urban sustainability and cities directly suffer the negative social and environmental impacts associated with inadequate practices, even after the advent of the National Solid Waste Policy-PNRS in Brazil. This research was strategic in that it identified the main weaknesses of waste picker associations in the Seridó region of the state of Rio Grande do Norte, and its general objective was to assess the sustainability of recyclable material picker organizations located in the region through the use of sustainability indicators and indices. Sustainability Indicators of Waste Picker Organizations (ISOC) proposed in a methodology presented by FUNASA (2016) were used. The research results showed the existence of several difficulties and opportunities in the work performed by recyclable material collectors from associations located in the cities of Seridó Potiguar. The sustainability indexes of waste picker organizations ranged from 0.26 to 0.52, indicating the predominance of an unfavorable trend towards sustainability in the period of analysis. The urgent need for improvements in the five waste picker organizations in the Seridó Potiguar region was evident, considering the dimensions that encompass the applied sustainability index, namely: (1) institutional dimension; (2) socioeconomic; (3) organizational; (4) operational efficiency; (5) working conditions, health and safety of the worker. At the end of the research, it was suggested the elaboration of a specific action plan for each waste picker organization based on their specificities and current priority needs, and the elaboration of public policies aimed at this group of professionals was recommended, in addition to the periodic application of indicators and indexes proposed by FUNASA (2016) to monitor the development of organizations over time, as well as the need for further research related to the topic.