The future of garbage: a study about the generation of garbage and the environmental spending from Brazil’s southern region

Abstract

This study was developed in Brazil’s Southern Region, which encompasses three states (Paraná, Santa Catarina and Rio Grande do Sul), aimed to identify the behavior of four variables considering the demographic growth, the accelerated increase in garbage production, the current revenues as well as the consequent investment made by the Government in order to properly allocate the garbage, thus reducing the environmental impact caused by garbage to society. The studied variables were: Number of Inhabitants; per capita Garbage Generation; Current Revenues; and, Public Spending with the Environmental Management. The research was based in bibliographic and documentary consultations using information from the three counties with the largest number of inhabitants in each of the three states that make up theBrazil’s Southern Region. Was analyzed the variables’ behavior in the years 2007-2011, and forecasted the same for the next five years, so that the results can help in the development of new public policies for environmental management. The results showed that while the Population Growth forecasted tends to increase in 4.9% until 2016 based in 2007, the increase of Generation of Garbage will be 54.13%. It was observed also that while the Current Revenues of de cities tend to increase 128.83% by 2016 compared to 2007, the environmental spending will be added in 144.27%. Was noted that the spending with environmental management tend to have higher upper than Current Revenues, derived mainly from the disproportional increase between population and generation of garbage.