The text: "O (The) [rest of the text is missing from the prompt]"Garbage is a problem.It is common everywhere, and in large cities, due to the volume of waste, it becomes even more complex. Options include landfills, through incineration systems, and recycling processes, which would benefit society greatly if they overcame low adherence.
São Paulo is advancing in the implementation of waste incineration plants for energy generation, a process called “Waste-to-EnergyWith the URE Barueri power plant scheduled to operate in 2027 and other projects planned for peripheral neighborhoods such as Perus and São Mateus.
However, what may seem like an interesting solution at first glance - using what is no longer useful to generate energy - requires further investigation due to its socio-environmental impacts. According to Vitor Hugo Argentino, project coordinator for solid waste at the Institute Pólis, the very naming of the process is problematic: energy recovery. "It's an attempt toGreenwashing"For incineration to work, it's not just about burning," he emphasizes in the BdF Interview.BdF Interview.
Beyond the climate impact, the direct burning of waste competes with cooperatives and scrap collectors, who currently perform the most significant recycling work in cities. Incinerators rely on high-calorific materials like plastics and paper, which form the basis of these workers' income. "Clearly, it's a competition," warns Argentino. He highlights the asymmetry of the model, where private concessionaires secure lucrative 20-30 year public contracts with minimum waste sending quotas, while scrap collectors survive on annual precarious agreements, even though they autonomously collect up to ten times more materials than the official official selective collection of the municipality.
The geographical choice of where to install the plants also reveals a mark of environmental racism, exposing peripheral populations to persistent organic pollutants and carcinogens like dioxins and furans, which accumulate in the environment and food chain. "If it were good, they would do it in Ibirapuera. But they always do it in Perus, São Mateus," the coordinator points out, drawing a parallel with the United States, where 80% of incinerators are also located in low-income or minority neighborhoods. He reinforces that even in developed European countries, with modern monitoring systems, environmental control fails to contain chronic contamination around these structures.
Finally, Victor Hugo Argentino points out that financially, the process is not even profitable: incineration costs three to ten times more than recycling and composting solutions, weighing on public budgets and increasing the cost of waste and citizens' energy bills. "The incinerator is a thermoelectric plant, so it has a direct impact on energy cost increases," he notes.
He adds that the process is not even financially viable: incineration costs three to ten times more than recycling and composting solutions.It's a thermoelectric plant, so it directly impacts energy cost increases.It operates as a power plant, generating electricity from the heat produced by burning waste.
Instead of undermining public management to justify emergency burning, Argentino argues that São Paulo should look to successful national models of integrated management and valorization of collectors, such as those in Florianópolis and Brasília. He believes that the debate on incineration in the country will only make sense "if we move forward with priorities, recycling and composting, and if we build these socio-economic safeguards so that this doesn't happen."
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TheBdF Interviewairs from Monday to Friday at 4 pm, onBrazil de Fato Radio98.9 FM in Greater São Paulo.