Use of sustainability indicators for the assessment of urban solid waste management in Belo Horizonte’s Metropolitan Region, MG, Brazil

ABSTRACT

A way to assess the performance of solid waste-management public policies is by using sustainability indicators, a tool that assists managers in making decisions. This work aims to contribute to the development and validation of a set of modified indicators based on quantitative variables that consider sustainability’s multiple dimensions. A strategy used for the proposal of indicators consisted in the bibliographic review of national and international documents followed by an analysis of their applicability in waste management in some municipalities of Belo Horizonte’s Metropolitan Region. The result is a proposal of a 16-indicator set, validated in 3 municipalities, whose values express sustainability trends and show waste management deficiencies.

Keywords:
urban solid waste management; sustainability indicators; case report