Waste Management 120 (2021) 772–783

Contents lists available at ScienceDirect

Waste Management
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/wasman

Improving urban household solid waste management in developing

countries based on the German experience
Bruno Duarte Azevedo a, Luiz Felipe Scavarda a, Rodrigo Goyannes Gusmão Caiado a,c,⇑, Maryegli Fuss b
a
Industrial Engineering Department, Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro (PUC-Rio), Brazil
b
Institute for Technology Assessment and System Analysis (ITAS), Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Germany
c
MSG Management Systems, Universidade Federal Fluminense (UFF), Brazil

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: Countries worldwide strive to improve their urban household solid waste management (UHSWM) prac-
Received 2 September 2020 tices. While developed countries like Germany have achieved good results with different UHSWM initia-
Revised 30 October 2020 tives, developing countries still struggle to be effective with their waste management (WM) policies.
Accepted 1 November 2020
With an interest in learning from the German experience, this paper provides a cross-case analysis
Available online 19 November 2020
between a German and a Brazilian city that can be of practical relevance to improving UHSWM in devel-
oping countries. The paper uses ‘‘process flow diagram” (PFD) and ‘‘wasteaware benchmark indicators”
Keywords:
for integrated sustainable waste management (ISWM). Both methods confirmed the German city as a
Sustainable supply chain management
Integrated sustainable waste management
benchmark and attested the inefficiency of the Brazilian UHSWM. The total maximum score weightage
Triple bottom line percentage of the matrix quantification difference was significant, 98% against 50%. Findings highlight
Process flow diagrams viable solutions based on the three pillars of the German solid WM system: clear laws, regular public
Wasteaware benchmark indicators campaigns, and fee methodology. The formalization and improvement of Brazilian UHSWM require bet-
ter governance to obtain additional investments. Herein, the application of the Green Dot methodology,
sponsored by industry and consumers in Germany, would enable an increase of up to 318% of the values
received by a typical Brazilian cooperative. This additional investment can empower a sustainable solu-
tion where the population could opt to work with recycling, either as a formal employee or as a formal
entrepreneur, shedding more light on the social pillar of the triple bottom line. Moreover, it can enable
improvements in technologies, and on regular public campaigns to increase education in important sus-
tainable matters.
Ó 2020 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction 1.1. Waste management in developing countries

Countries around the world struggle to improve their urban
household solid waste management (UHSWM) practices. Over
the next 30 years, population increase, fast urbanization, and eco-
nomic growth may raise global waste by 70%, to 3.40 billion tons of
waste generated annually (World Bank, 2019). The most significant
growth is expected to happen in developing countries, including a
percentage rise in packaging waste (Ayeleru et al. 2020). While
developed countries like Germany (Magrini et al., 2020) have
achieved good results with different UHSWM initiatives, develop-
ing countries are still not effective with their waste management
(WM) policies (Olay-Romero et al., 2020).
⇑ Corresponding author.
E-mail addresses: brunoduarteazevedo@gmail.com (B.D. Azevedo), lf.scavarda@
puc-rio.br (L.F. Scavarda), rodrigocaiado@tecgraf.puc-rio.br (R.G.G. Caiado),
maryegli.fuss@kit.edu (M. Fuss).
The unplanned growth of many cities caused by fast urbaniza-
tion has resulted in infrastructural challenges that undermined
the capacity of national and municipal governments to increase
household WM service levels at the rate they are demanded
(Guerrero et al., 2013). WM professionals in developing countries
deal with the continuous growth of slums (Azevedo et al., 2019),
the lack of general infrastructure (Tadesse, 2008), inadequate bud-
get (Lohri et al., 2014), corruption, ineffective education (Moh and
Manaf, 2017) and community disbelief towards the government
(Marshall and Farahbakhsh, 2013).
The relation with the informal recycling sector (IRS) is another
main issue, as waste-pickers play an active role to collect, sort and
commercialize recyclable waste in several developing countries,
like Argentina (Villalba et al., 2020), Brazil (Gutberlet et al.,
2017), Chile (Rojas et al., 2018), India (Sharma et al., 2018), Turkey
(Yıldız-Geyhan et al., 2019), Malaysia (Moh and Manaf, 2017) and

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.wasman.2020.11.001
0956-053X/Ó 2020 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Bruno Duarte Azevedo, Luiz Felipe Scavarda, Rodrigo Goyannes Gusmão Caiado et al.
China (Steuer et al., 2018). This reality is not sustainable over the
Triple Bottom Line - TBL perspective (Elkington, 1998) and the
delivered results are not satisfactory. For instance, in Brazil,
Gutberlet (2015, p 27) attested that most of the waste-pickers earn
less than a minimum wage and ‘‘the low income of the recyclers
poses a major livelihood obstacle and basically keeps this population
in poverty”.
Due to its importance, different scholars have been analyzing
and reporting different initiatives to face WM challenges in the
developing countries. For instance, in Mexico, based on the assess-
ment of 66 municipalities, Olay-Romero et al. (2020) found an
incipient implementation of solid WM, emphasizing the need to
increase the collection coverage and to improve the conditions of
the disposal sites in most of the municipalities. In the Czech
Republic, Mardoyan and Braun (2015) defends the practice of char-
coalization of the fermentation residue from biogas stations, as an
ecological and promising WM technology. Governmentś actions
and plans have also been taking place. In Malaysia, the federal gov-
ernment implemented a Strategic Plan 2014–2020 including sub-
jects like mindset, behavior and culture, aiming to achieve a
recycling rate of 22% by 2020 (Moh and Manaf, 2017). In Chile,
the government set a target to recycle 25% of municipal inorganic
waste by 2020 (Rojas et al., 2018). In Brazil, the Federal Govern-
ment launched the National Solid Waste Policy (PNRS), through
Law 12.305 (MMA, 2020) in 2010, which. defined shared responsi-
bility for the product life cycle between public power, industry and
final consumers (Rebehy et al., 2017); the mandatory implementa-
tion of reverse logistics, based on the expanded producer responsi-
bility (EPR) principle (Guarnieri et al., 2015); and the inclusion of
waste-pickers in the formal recycling system (Fuss et al., 2020).
However, results from these different initiatives are still far
from being considered enough. In Chile, by 2018 a little more than
half of local governments had implemented recycling, and the sep-
arate collection rate is much lower than in any OECD country with
available data (Valenzuela-Levi, 2019). In Pakistan (Ali et al., 2019),
and in India (Sharma et al., 2018), the existing solid WM practices
are very poor and need major improvement. In Brazil, after nearly
one decade of the PNRS, most of the targets have not been achieved
(Cetrulo et al., 2018). As regards recycling, progress continues to be
based on informality and on the precarious labor conditions for the
waste-pickers (Campos, 2014; Gutberlet, 2017), who faces daily
occupational hazards, such as long working hours; exposures to
physical, chemical, mechanical, biological, ergonomic and social
agents; and frequent work accidents (Zolnikov et al., 2018). The
Urban Solid WM Diagnosis (Brasil, 2020) revealed that in 2018 only
4.11% of the waste made available for collection were selectively
collected. This number attests to the failure to turn the PNRS into
good practical results in the Brazilian household recycling chain.
1.2. The German case
The German case can be considered a success story. The country
was named as the world champion recycling country in 2017
(WEF, 2017), and is known as one of the world references in rela-
tion to legislation focused on responsibility, recycling, treatment
and waste disposal schemes (Da Cruz et al., 2014, 2017). The suc-
cess of the German strategies has led other EU countries to imple-
ment EPR policies for packaging waste, which has increased their
recycling rates throughout the years (Rubio et al., 2019).
Since the introduction of the ‘‘Verpackungsverordnung”, or Pack-
aging Ordinance in 1991 (Livingstone and Sparks, 1994), all the
packaging manufacturers and distributors of packaging operating
in Germany are entirely liable for their waste and must comply
with and finance integrally a system that ensures their recycling
and recovery operations (Ferreira, 2017). Therefore, the German
packaging industry founded the Duales System Deutschland
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Waste Management 120 (2021) 772–783
(DSD), a logistical system that picks up household packaging in
parallel to the existing municipal waste-collection systems. Its
installation was the only opportunity for the industry to escape
the sole duty of each producer and distributor to collect and recy-
cle used packaging. In this regard, the industry provided an
arrangement of its responsibility (Green dot) that would guarantee
the collection of packaging waste from all consumers and should
be able to fulfill specific quotas of collection, sorting, and recycling
(Neumayer, 2000).
Furthermore, the fee applied to each product varies according to
the weight and the type of material used in the package. This
methodology encourages and rewards companies that have green
design strategies and innovation (Hana, 2013; Ungerman et al.,
2018; Udell et al., 2019) in their product development. This
arrangement is aligned to the Sustainable Supply Chain Manage-
ment (SSCM) paradigm, which states that industry has responsibil-
ity for its products and packaging, from a project to its final
disposal (Ahi and Searcy, 2013), not only on an environmentally
responsible manner but also socially Scavarda et al., 2019). It is also
aligned with the circular economy concept (Kirchherr et al., 2017)
and allows solid WM companies to look for modern WM technolo-
gies (e.g., Caiado et al., 2021; Maroušek et al., 2020).
Since the beginning of the application of this law, accompanied
by massive educational campaigns, Germany has improved its
results, achieving a recycling rate of 67% of typical household
waste in 2017 (BMU, 2018). The country has improved the recov-
ery and recycling rates of all materials and reduced the link
between waste volume and economical production (Magrini
et al., 2020). The current challenge is the need to improve tech-
nologies, processes, and legislation towards a truly circular system,
where a discarded product can be transformed into a new one,
with same characteristics (BMU, 2018).
1.3. Research questions, goals and contributions
As noted above, further explorative research is needed to learn
more about the innovations linked to WM and socio-environment
activities in developing countries, corroborating recent studies in
the literature (e.g., Velis, 2017; Gutberlet et al., 2017). Moreover,
the improvement of UHSWM requires planned investment in
infrastructure, demand policy coherence, engagement of stake-
holders (e.g., industries, householders, investors, IRS, and
decision-makers) and governance (Ddiba et al., 2020). Within this
context, although Marshall and Farahbakhsh (2013, p.14) state,
‘‘It has been widely recognized that it is counterproductive for devel-
oping countries to use strategies and policies developed for high-
income countries”, the authors question whether it would be possi-
ble nowadays to learn with the German experience to address
some of the current challenges in UHSWM in developing countries,
using Brazil as the research sample. In this sense, they formulate
the first research question (RQ1): Is it possible to tackle the
Brazilian UHSWM problems by learning from solutions that were
successfully applied in Germany? Considering that any solution
designed for developing countries should be ‘‘locally sensitive,
critical, creative, and ‘owned’ by the community of concern”
(Marshall and Farahbakhsh (2013, p.14), the authors pose a second
research question (RQ2): How can the UHSWM in developing
countries be improved considering the German experience?
Within the context of the research problem and the posed
research questions, this paper aims to find new solutions to
improve UHSWM in developing countries from the analysis of
strategies adopted in a benchmark case. To address this goal, this
paper adopts the ‘‘process flow diagram” (PFD), presented in
Wilson et al. (2012), and the ‘‘Wasteaware benchmark indicators”,
presented Wilson et al. (2015), for integrated sustainable waste
management (ISWM) to make a comparative analysis between a
Bruno Duarte Azevedo, Luiz Felipe Scavarda, Rodrigo Goyannes Gusmão Caiado et al.
German and a Brazilian city. The paper contributes to the literature
in different ways. First, it improves the comprehension on the
impact of UHSWM from the holistic perspective of sustainability,
as suggested in Tan et al. (2015), Singh and Ashish (2016),
Kruger et al. (2018), providing knowledge about good waste prac-
tices, their responsibilities, and consequences of poor WM, as sug-
gested in Mukama et al. (2016). Second, it reinforces the need for
industries to take responsibility for the end-of-life of their products
(including their packaging), as suggested by Li et al. (2016) and
Azevedo et al. (2019). Third, this paper discusses interventions cap-
able of changing the UHSWM Brazilian reality, improving the prac-
tical application and effectiveness of the PNRS in all regions of the
country as suggested in Cetrulo et al. (2018). Fourth, it discusses
alternatives to the IRS, who have increasingly suffered formal reg-
ulatory pressures and still have their returns deeply dependent on
the secondary resource price (Steuer et al., 2018). Finally, it consid-
ers the transdisciplinary aspects of UHSWM (Chammas et al.,
2020), and the connections related to global supply chains and cir-
cular economy (Julianelli et al., 2020).
2. Material and methods
This section presents the research framework followed by the
research steps.
2.1. Research framework
Two cases were purposefully selected to compare UHSWM from
developing and developed countries with embedded units of anal-
ysis, which means that within each single case (e.g., a country)
attention was given to a subunit (the actual focused city)
(Bredenhoff et al., 1978). They were considered mutually compara-
ble based on a set of parameters (e.g., population size) derived
from the literature. Münster is known as the capital of bikes, has
around 310.000 inhabitants (Abfallbilanz, 2019), and is authorized
to call itself ‘‘The World’s Most Liveable City” (Stadt-Münster,
2019). On the other side, Macaé is known as the Brazilian oil cap-
ital and has 256.000 inhabitants (IBGE, 2020). Despite having a
gross national income GNI per capita similar to those related to
high-income economies (IBGE, 2020; World Bank, 2020) the Brazil-
ian city faces all difficulties related to rapid growth and economic
inequality. A focus on cities with fewer than one million inhabi-
tants is essential in current urban sustainability discourses since
48% of the world’s urban dwellers reside in urban settlements with
fewer than 500,000 inhabitants, while only around 12% live in the
megacities of 10 million inhabitants or more (Pojani and Stead,
2015; UN, 2018).
Additionally, regarding the research context, which involves
high contextual dynamism and complexity, the case study
methodological approach is adopted, as it is considered suited to
explore new research settings (Yin, 2014). Moreover, case studies
are the most convenient research strategy when the research ques-
tion is mostly exploratory, comprising detailed observations (Ye
et al., 2018), like the ones from this research.
The multiple case analysis was based on within-cases analysis
and cross-case comparisons (Ye et al., 2018), following the three
stages of Bazeley (2013):
(I) Description of each case study;
(II) Identification of similarities and differences of each case
concerning the trial outcomes through pairwise compar-
isons; and
(III) Interpretation of critical variables influencing the outcomes
in the two case studies (Haenssgen et al., 2019).
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Waste Management 120 (2021) 772–783
Fig. 1 depicts the overall research design and its mixed-methods
approach used are provided next.
This study counts with multiple sources of evidence to capture
a holistic viewpoint and enhance research validity (Ye et al., 2018).
Secondary data were obtained from literature analysis and docu-
ment analysis, and then primary data were acquired through par-
ticipant observation and interviews. Thus, to provide insights
towards answering the research question, problem-centered inter-
views (Witzel, 2000), which consider interviewees as experts in
their decisions and actions, were chosen. Also, the search for con-
vergence and increased validity among multiple and different
sources of information to form themes or categories was based
on the triangulation approach (Cameron, 2009).
2.2. Research steps and procedures used for data collection, analysis
and validation
This study comprises five steps (Fig. 2) with a logical sequence
that links the theoretical and empirical data from the study’s initial
research questions to its answer (Yin, 2014).
The first step was based on two methods of secondary data col-
lection: a literature analysis and a document analysis, related to
each case study. The literature analysis followed the steps of a
scoping review from Armstrong et al. (2011). The document anal-
ysis consisted of the review of Brazilian and German laws. For
example, the analysis of the German WM system at the national
level intended to get a deep understanding of the status quo related
to UHSWM in the country.
In the second step, the participant observation method was
used to develop a holistic understanding of the system in the field,
providing an accurate representation of a culture and thus improv-
ing the knowledge and perception built from the literature
(Kawulich, 2005). Participant observation increases the study
validity if combined with additional strategies such as document
analysis and interviews (Kawulich, 2005). For example, one of
the authors lived for at least six months in Münster and Macaé
and functioned both as the lead researcher, but also as the city pro-
filer, a point of contact with the city authorities (Wilson et al.,
2012). During this time, to provide primary data collection, in addi-
tion to the personal experience of living as a local household, he
interacted with local habitants and visited most of the facilities
involved with the citieś UHSWM system. As an initial outcome to
make the comparison between the cases, the authors built two
process flow diagrams (PFDs) to represent the flows of the house-
hold waste. The main advantage of using this approach is the abil-
ity to picture all the linkages and transactions between all the
stakeholders, including the final destinations of waste materials.
All these characteristics are useful in identifying possible points
of improvement in the functioning of the global WM system
(Wilson et al., 2012).
In the third step, to validate the PFDs, there were semi-
structured face-to-face interviews with key experts, four from
Münster (Case A - Germany) (i.e., the Head of disposal center facil-
ities; the Head of adult education/ networking of the municipal
cleaning company (AWM), the Assets and Services supervisor of
Remondis, and the Head of Institut für Abfall, Abwasser und
Infrastruktur-Management - INFA) and four from Macaé (Case B -
Brazil) (i.e., the Secretary of municipal infrastructure, the former
municipal Secretary of the Environment, a Local entrepreuner in
recycling and the operations manager of the municipal cleaning
company - Limpatech). The semi-structured interviews lasted
30–90 min. The selection of the interviewed was done by the
snowball method (Sánchez-Arias et al., 2019), in which they should
had an in-depth knowledge of the municipal and national WM sys-
tem. The number of interviews was established by the theoretical
saturation criterion, i.e., when the last interview did not provide
Bruno Duarte Azevedo, Luiz Felipe Scavarda, Rodrigo Goyannes Gusmão Caiado et al.
Fig. 1. Multiple case study design.
new elements to understand the study object (Sánchez-Arias et al.,
2019). In both cases, all interviews covered similar topics and were
conducted in English (Case A) and Portuguese (Case B). The inter-
view followed a previously established Field Work Protocol,
attached as Supplementary Information, encompassing all topics
which should be addressed along the interview. As in Azevedo
et al. (2019), it contains the objectives of the study, the personnel
involved and the methodological aspects (e.g. guiding questions,
specific questions to municipal cleaning company and related with
system data, and interviewed agents involved). The research was
conducted using qualitative content analysis, which provides
researchers the flexibility to analyse data (verbal and visual) of
unstructured phenomena and focus the analysis on the relevant
aspects of the material (Kasavan et al., 2019).
Once the PFDs were approved, the researchers applied the ‘was-
teaware’ benchmark indicators (qualitative and quantitative) for
ISWM in cities (Wilson et al., 2015). This system is a powerful tool
to communicate the weak spots and to make stakeholders aware of
the opportunities for improvement (Ali et al., 2019). Quantitative
indicators comprise of Public Health-collection, Environmental
controlled disposal and Resource Management – reuse, reduce
and recycling (as percentages) whereas the qualitative indicators
are part of governance covering user and provider inclusivity;
financial sustainability; and the national policy framework and
local institutions (Wilson et al, 2013). According to Wilson et al.
(2015), the main advantage is that these indicators have already
been used in case studies from more than 50 cities around the
world, which makes this model convenient for comparison pur-
poses. Additionally, the authors evaluated the adherence with
SSCM pillars (green design, green procurement, green packaging,
reverse logistics, social dimensions, public awareness and organi-
zational culture and corporate strategy) (Dubey et al., 2017;
Azevedo et al., 2019).
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Waste Management 120 (2021) 772–783
In the fifth step, as Rana et al. (2017), Sharma et al. (2018) and
Ali et al., (2019), the simple matrix quantification method has been
utilized for a better understanding of the evaluation of the existing
solid WM of the evaluated cities. The proposed grading system
used in the ‘wasteaware’ benchmarks is low (L), Low/Medium (L/
M), Medium (M), Medium /High (M/H) and High (H), a certain
weightage has been assigned to each of these. The assigned
weights are (L = 1, L/M = 2, M = 3, M/H = 4, H = 5).
Finally, the authors discussed the feasibility of the German solid
waste flow in the Brazilian context. By using the values of the
license calculator offered by the German first dual system com-
pany (DerGrünePunkt, 2020), and the numbers of a cooperative
presented in Gutberlet (2015), the authors estimated what could
be the improvement of the Brazilian recycling system if the fee
applied to the German industry was applied in Brazil. All the values
were converted to dollar considering the exchange rate of
03.01.2020, where U$ 1.00 equals R$ 3.75 and 1 Euro equals U$
1.10. As a first attempt for a better understanding of the numbers,
the authors calculated the potential additional income the cooper-
ative would receive if the Brazilian industry had to pay the German
fee for its commercialized packaging.
Therefore, the combination of multiple sources of evidence,
logically linked in this exploratory and descriptive research,
enabled the triangulation of data sources and guaranteed the
reliability and validity of the findings constructs (Azevedo
et al., 2019). In addition, by using a fieldwork protocol combined
with case study documents collected during the study (Yin,
2014), the reliability of the data was further confirmed by pro-
viding the necessary transparency and traceability for replicating
research procedures. Finally, the combination of quantitative and
qualitative data based on ‘wasteaware’ indicators for both cases
ensures a comprehensive understanding of the problem (Ali
et al., 2019).
Bruno Duarte Azevedo, Luiz Felipe Scavarda, Rodrigo Goyannes Gusmão Caiado et al.
Fig. 2. Research steps and mixed-methods approach.
3. Results and discussions
This section presents first the within-case analysis of the
UHSWM systems of Münster and Macaé. Then, the cross-case anal-
ysis and discussion are presented, followed by a debate on the
potential impact of Green Dot in Brazil.
3.1. The case of Münster/Germany (Case study A)
The city has a municipal company responsible for the primary
WM services called AWM. It collected in 2018 approximately
130,557 tons of domestic waste, which gives an average of
421 kg per person per year, or 1.15 kg per person/day
(Abfallbilanz, 2019). The collection system covers 100% of the city,
and no relations to public health problems were cited during the
interviews and document analysis. Fig. 3 syntheses the household
waste PFD of the city with the formal and informal flows, from col-
lection to treatment and disposal.
The collection service was separated in active or passive. On the
active alternative, the companies collect different fractions in a
door-to-door system. On the passive option, the dwellers must
take their waste to central collection channels. In both cases, how-
ever, the households must separate and store the waste fractions
inside their homes. All the flows presented in Fig. 3 are formals,
with one exception: given the high price of the materials, some
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Waste Management 120 (2021) 772–783
waste-pickers were noted collecting used bottles and cans in pub-
lic bins. To operationalize the active collection, the cleaning com-
panies provide different containers in front of the residences,
which prevents the spreading of the garbage while protecting the
workers responsible for the collection. The main ones are the
organic waste (brown), paper (blue), packaging (yellow) and the
non-recyclable residuals (grey). A company paid by the DSD col-
lects the yellow bins. Bulk waste, such as furniture, carpets and
garden waste, is collected once a month. To operationalize the pas-
sive collection, AWM offers 290 glass collection banks (separated
by color), 11 recycling centers, plus containers for electronics and
clothes scattered throughout the city. In addition, the main food
markets offer machines to collect bottles and cans licensed by
the deposit systems schemes. This system differentiates two types
of containers with a deposit fee (pfand): the single-use containers
(Einweg), which have a deposit fee of 25 Euro cents, are destroyed
and recycled; and the multiple-use containers (Mehrweg) (e.g.,
beer bottles), which have a deposit fee that varies from 8 to 15 euro
cents and are cleaned up and reused. As an incentive for busi-
nesses, the material belongs to the company that collects the bot-
tles. Therefore, the Schwarz Group, the company that owns two big
supermarket chains, has become the fifth-largest waste disposal
company in Germany (EUWID, 2018).
Concerning treatment and disposal, the UHSWM of the city
applies in its practices the waste hierarchy. Clothes, electronic
Bruno Duarte Azevedo, Luiz Felipe Scavarda, Rodrigo Goyannes Gusmão Caiado et al. Waste Management 120 (2021) 772–783

Fig. 3. Household waste process flow diagram of Münster.

and furniture are collected to be reused and/or dismantled. Biolog- laws, regular public campaigns and the fees methodology, which
ical waste is converted in commercial organic compost and was developed to sustain the system integrally (Fig. 4).
methane gas used to generate energy. All other materials, includ-
ing the residuals from the non-recycled bins, are sorted to increase
the recycling rate to its maximum. Lastly, all final residuals with no 3.2. The case of Macaé/Brazil (Case study B)
additional value are then sent to incineration plants, capable of
generating electricity. This system embraces the 3Rs concept and As reported in different studies covering solid WM in develop-
is focused on closing the loop of the produced materials. The land- ing countries (e.g., Moh and Manaf, 2017; Sharma et al., 2018),
fill of Münster is closed for more than 15 years. obtaining trustful data in Macaé was a challenge. The company
To motivate children and adults to think and act sustainably, responsible for the collection, Limpatech, is not easy to be accessed
and to understand the benefits of the circular economy, the munic- and does not have a website to facilitate communication with the
ipal cleaning company also heads many educational programs. A local community. The municipal solid WM plan offered on the city
specific approach to dealing with refugees is also included. council’s website is outdated, as selective collection is no longer
To sustain the system, in addition to the payments made by the carried out (Macaé, 2012). In addition, since 2014 the city has
industry to finance the DSD, households must comply with two not reported the numbers related to UHSWM in the National San-
waste fees: a usage fee and a performance fee, which works itation Information System (SNIS, 2020). In this sense, most of the
according to the Pay-As-You-Throw (PAYT) market-based instru- data came from the field research.
ment (MBI) (Alzamora and Barros, 2020; Magrini et al., 2020).
For each residential unit, a basic fee of €36.00 per year is applied.
The performance rate depends on the size of the waste bins and
the frequency of collection. For example, it is possible to request
weekly collection for the residual waste, instead of a two weeks
collection; however, the charge for a 660 L container rises from €
1122.00/year to € 2244/year. The paper and the yellow bins are
free of charge for private households (AWM, 2019). To avoid the
deposit of no recyclables in the bins with no charging fee, AWM
estimates a minimum volume per person (10 L) to the residual
waste and calculates the fee to the needed container for each loca-
tion. The recycling centers throughout Münster accept recyclable,
bulky goods, smaller electronic devices, and other materials from
private households free of charge. However, a fee is charged for
the submission of residual waste.
Finally, according to the head of the Institute for Waste,
Wastewater and Infrastructure Management GmbH (INFA), the pil-
lars of the German success, which can be seen in Münster, are clear Fig. 4. Pillars of the German UHSWM system.

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Bruno Duarte Azevedo, Luiz Felipe Scavarda, Rodrigo Goyannes Gusmão Caiado et al.
According to the operational manager of Limpatech, in 2019 the
company collected around 250 tons of domestic waste per day
(0.98 kg per person/day). The company and the municipal secretary
of infrastructure affirmed that the household waste collection cov-
ers 100% of the city. However, in some places, it is possible to find
land with irregular disposal of waste. Epidemiological data about
the rate of leptospirosis, dengue and other diseases associated with
poor UHSWM (DataSUS, 2019; RJ, 2019) are also an indication that
the public health is suffering the consequences of inefficient collec-
tion. Fig. 5 syntheses the household waste PFD of the city.
The official collection is mainly door-to-door, with no distinc-
tion according to the type of the materials. In the slums, as
Azevedo et al. (2019), in addition to violence issues that hinder
researchers’ access, the lack of adequate streets for collection
trucks requires the use of central bins. There is no obligation to
use containers for waste collection in the city, so most of the waste
is disposed in plastic bags on the pathways. According to Limpat-
ech, in the past they tried to adopt containers in specific areas,
however, they were all stolen and/or damaged by the population.
This fact led to the spreading of waste (i.e., dogs tearing up bags),
reproduction of flies and other vectors, floods and to greater phys-
ical wear and tear of the garbage collectors (Rana et al., 2017).
Since household waste is mixed, most of the flows are related to
informal waste-pickers collecting recyclable materials from dis-
carded residues and enthusiastic residents who take their recy-
clable waste to informal traders scattered throughout the city.
The estimation of the IRŚs size is one of the most difficult tasks
concerning WM within a city (Steuer et al., 2018). In Macaé, this
analysis is even harder, as the city has no cooperative for waste-
pickers. There are three traders with physical spaces open to public
and at least two other traders who drive their own vehicle to col-
lect waste from houses, condominiums and schools. This number
varies constantly. During the research, one of the collectors had
to stop to work because his truck was broken, and he didn’t have
the money to fix it. A major concern is that traders only accept
specific materials according to their market value. For instance,
the majority do not accept glass bottles.
The formal collection take all materials directly to the landfill,
which does not capture the biogas produced. The city does not
Fig. 5. Household waste process flow diagram of Macaé.
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Waste Management 120 (2021) 772–783
consider in its practices any action related to the waste hierarchy.
In Macaé, there is a lack of campaign to educate the population
better, no strategy to improve the reuse of residuals, and the gen-
eral infrastructure is not built to increase the recycling rates.
To finance the system, the mayor’s office charges a fee to the
households together with the land tax. This fee does not vary
according to the number of residuals produced by each home.
Additionally, given the existence of irregular occupations, part of
the population does not pay the land tax. Moreover, the industry
has no responsibility for household packaging waste, so it does
not pay any specific fee to help to maintain the system. Therefore,
as Alzamora and Barros (2020), the local government uses the
income from other taxes to finance the cleaning company, which
receives payment according to the weight of the material collected.
According to the current Secretary of Infrastructure of the city,
the lack of budget is the main reason for the failure of recycling
programs, including the creation and maintenance of recycling
cooperatives. However, according to the manager of municipal
cleaning company, the lack of education and commitment of the
population also contributes significantly to this reality. Lastly,
according to the former Secretary of the Environment, the cleaning
company has no interest in supporting recycling programs because
it receives more money if more waste goes to landfill. The lack of a
common view among significant stakeholders worsens the path to
find a feasible solution.
Finally, the pillars brought by the head of INFA to explain the
German success (Fig. 4) are not adopted in Macaé. The legislation
seems to be incapable of holding responsible all the stakeholders
involved in the UHSWM; there are no regular campaigns to
improve education of the population towards sustainability; and
the fees charged do not support the system integrally.
3.3. Cross-case analysis and discussion
Table 1 offers a synthesis of the ‘wasteaware’ benchmark indi-
cators (qualitative and quantitative) for ISWM in Münster and
Macaé (Wilson et al., 2015).
Table 2 presents the simple matrix quantification method to
estimate the score of WM practices in each city, following the same
Bruno Duarte Azevedo, Luiz Felipe Scavarda, Rodrigo Goyannes Gusmão Caiado et al.
procedure as Rana et al. (2017) and Sharma et al. (2018). The high
difference between the scores (98–50%) was expected and con-
firms Münster as a benchmark on solid WM practices. The city is
dealing with the development of technologies to increase the qual-
ity of the recycled material, aiming to close the loop integrally.
The score of Macaé places its solid WM system a bit ahead of
those obtained in Indian cities studied in Rana et al. (2017) and
Sharma et al. (2018). Despite announcing 100% of collection cover-
age, Macaé still struggles to achieve proper collection, which is
attested by Coffey and Coad (2010) as a characteristic of develop-
ing countries. The city faces public health problems related to
waste, which means a worst service quality. Environmental protec-
tion does not seem to be a priority, as waste hierarchy is not
applied. As Tadesse et al. (2008) there are areas with irregular dis-
posal and the landfill is the only ‘‘treatment” option. There is no
formal collection of recyclable and closing the loop of the materials
Table 1
Wasteaware’ benchmark indicators (adapted from Wilson, 2015).
Note: Indicators receiving poor/low grade are coloured red, low-medium grade coloured red & orange, upper-medium grade coloured orange & green and high grades
coloured green (Ali et al., 2019, 258).
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Waste Management 120 (2021) 772–783
consumed is an unrealistic goal to the near/medium term. As
expected, there is a high level of informality in the flows linked
to recycling (Fig. 5). This scenario corroborates Wilson et al.
(2013), who attests that the IRS is subsidizing the collection system
of the city.
Besides the fact that the PNRS is based in the EPR principle
(Guarnieri, 2015), the Brazilian legislation relieves packaging
industries from the obligation to implement proper reverse logisti-
cal channels, which is reflected in compliance with the SSCM pil-
lars. Current packaging design and labelling practices do not
facilitate separation and discharge of material; and reverse logis-
tics are not widely available in all sectors, what corroborates
Conkés (2018) barriers to WM development in Brazil. Since cities
in developing countries already struggle to pay for their solid
WM system (Lohri et al., 2014), it is reasonable to think that part
of the industry in these countries benefits from the informal nature
Bruno Duarte Azevedo, Luiz Felipe Scavarda, Rodrigo Goyannes Gusmão Caiado et al.
Table 2
Matrix quantification method (adapted from Wilson, 2015).
Physical Components
1 Public health - Waste Collection
1. C
2 Environmental control waste treatment and disposal
2E
3 Resource Value – 3Rs: Reduce, Reuse, Recycle
3R
Total Score (Quantitative Indicators)
Maximum Score
Weightage (%)
Governance Factors
4U Inclusivity
4P
6N Sound institutions, proactive policies
6L
Total Score (Quantitative Indicators)
Maximum Score
Weightage (%)
Total Score (Overall)
Total Maximum Score
Weightage (%)
of recycling chains, based on poverty and the precarious working
conditions of waste-pickers. To revert this, companies must bring
to their strategic discussion terms like green product design, green
procurement, green packaging, reverse logistics, social dimensions,
public awareness and organizational culture and corporate strat-
egy to achieve a sustainable supply chain over the TBL perspective
(Dubey et al., 2017; Azevedo et al., 2019). Not only when they are
forced to (e.g., by laws in developed countries), but also in every
country they operate towards a real SSCM. Industries that profit
from the sale of packaged products in places with no structure to
deal with the resulting waste, need to cooperate (including finan-
cially) with a system that guarantees recycling and proper treat-
ment. In any case, it is also up to the government of these
countries to legislate and oversee the industry responsibility for
the lifecycle of its products to increase the rate of recovered recy-
clable materials (Cetrulo et al., 2018).
This new posture of companies could help the IRS, which is
undoubtedly integrated within WM systems in developing coun-
tries, to move forward. These informal WM structures still result
from the absence of the state in providing better life-hood condi-
tions to its citizens and very much depends on the market prices
for secondary materials (Steuer et al., 2018). This fact leads to inef-
ficient results. For instance, in many areas of Macaé with low pop-
ulation density, informal collectors say it isn’t profitable to collect
recyclables. This is the same argument used by Israeli cities (Lavee
and Khatib, 2010; Lavee and Nardiya, 2013). In opposition, the Ger-
man case analysis demonstrated that proper WM management,
including recycling, is an essential activity that has to be done
regardless market conditions.
The vast difference in the score related to governance factors
(100–35%) of Table 2 explicit the problem of the Brazilian city, con-
firming that the improvement of UHSWM requires planned invest-
ment in infrastructure, but it also demands policy coherence,
engagement of stakeholders (e.g., industries, householders, inves-
tors, IRS, and decision-makers) and governance (Ddiba et al.,
2020). The application of the German pillars is a feasible strategy
to solve this issue. As an example, a better fee methodology is
needed. As the fee charged does not vary according to the amount
of waste produced (PAYT), the population has no incentive to carry
out proper sorting or to reduce the amount of waste produced
(Alzamora and Barros, 2020). Additionally, given the existence of
irregular occupations, part of the population does not pay the
waste fee. Furthermore, with the current methodology, the clean-
ing company earns more money if more waste goes to landfill.
The lack of financial sources to sustain the recycling system of
Waste Management 120 (2021) 772–783
Benchmark Indicator Münster Macaé
Waste collection coverage 5 5
Quality of waste collection service 5 2
Controlled treatment and disposal 5 5
Quality of environmental protection of waste treatment and disposal 5 4
Recycling rate 4 1
Quality of 3Rs – Reduce, reuse, recycle - provision 5 1
29 18
30 30
97% 60%
Benchmark Indicator Münster Macaé
User inclusivity 5 2
Provider inclusivity 5 1
Adequacy of national solid waste management framework 5 2
Local institutional coherence 5 2
20 7
20 20
100% 35%
49 25
50 50
98% 50%
Macaé is one of the main reasons for the lack of investments in
proper equipment and new technologies (e.g., Maroušek et al.,
2015), the lack of public campaigns to improve education towards
sustainability (another German pillar) and the high percentage of
informality. This statement is aligned with Conke (2018), who
named it as an ‘‘unequal sharing of programs’ costs and responsi-
bilities” that contribute to the low recycling rates in Brazil. It also
supports Rojas et al. (2018), who concluded that per capita spend-
ing on waste management is positively and significantly linked to
separate collection rates. Finally, it corroborates Steuer et al.
(2018), who stated that any replacement of the IRS would require
relatively high financial investments to create economically favor-
able conditions to attract the necessary workforce.
Lastly, another characteristic that emerged from the participa-
tory observation is related to the personal behavior of the citizens.
As stated by Moah and Monaf (2017), one critical challenge in
source separation and recycling practice is the public attitude
towards making source separation and recycling as a habit. The
German solid WM system demands commitment and confidence
of the dwellers to function well. In this sense, the notion of work,
discipline, and personal effort appears as a significant differential
between the inhabitants of the two studied cities. In general, Ger-
mans seems to have a clearer understanding of the need to comply
with daily tasks to have a better society, and to adopt personal
abdications to achieve collective benefits. In the other hand, the
government deliver the results expected by the population, which
creates a positive virtuous cycle. This reflection is aligned to what
Maroušek et al. (2014) call as ‘‘ethical responsibility for the land”
when they noted that ‘‘the relationship of the Central European deci-
sion makers to the land is more problematic than that of the Western
Europeans” (Maroušek et al. 2014, p.5). The economic inequality
divides the Brazilian population in two extremes sides: an
oppressed class that has to face arduous routines and is discour-
aged to ‘‘think” or do things in the name of a society that harms
them daily; and a privileged class that has grown up with the
oppressed class doing different ‘‘heavy” works for them (e.g., clean-
ing the house, cooking, doing the garden, taking care of the chil-
dren). It seems that both groups find it difficult to understand
the need to help clean up and organize their waste to achieve a
common good, especially as they are governed by low-
creditworthy governors. As stated by Maroušek, (2013), the solu-
tion requires a profound transformation in society and must begin
with intensive educational campaigns to spread ethical decision-
making behavior among the population. In the word of the head
of INFA: ‘‘regular campaigns for better education is essential”.
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Bruno Duarte Azevedo, Luiz Felipe Scavarda, Rodrigo Goyannes Gusmão Caiado et al.
Table 3
Commercialized materials COOPCENT (adapted from Gutberlet 2015) *CEMPRE 2020.
Material Tons/year Price/ton*
Glass 0 –
Plastic 29.20 $547.00
Paper/ 1335.90 $147.00
cardboard
Beverage cartons 74.30 $67.00
TOTAL 1,439.40
3.4. The potential impact of the green Dot in Brazil
This subsection discusses the potential impact on the Brazilian
recycling system if the same fee applied for the German packaging
industry were applied in Brazil.
Table 3 first presents the amount of collectively commercialized
materials by a cooperative of waste-picker presented in Gutberlet
(2015). Updating the prices to the market values of 2020
(CEMPRE, 2020), the total annual earnings of the cooperative
would be approximate U$ 216,859.00, and each recycler would
earn an average monthly income between US$ 120.00 and US$
241.00. As in Gutberlet (2015), these values are lower than the cur-
rent minimum salary in Brazil (U$ 277.00).
Next, authors calculated the fees industry would need to pay to
use in its packaging the same quantity of material commercialized
by the cooperative. To do that, the values of the license calculator
(DerGrüne Punkt, 2020) were adopted. The additional value
received per year would be U$ 473,434.00, reaching a total income
of U$ 690,293.00 (Table 2). This value represents a 318% increase in
the earnings of the cooperative. Each recycler would receive
between U$ 381.00 and U$ 767.00 per month, which is signifi-
cantly more than the current minimum salary. This additional gain
would enable improvements on the machinery and equipment
used by the recyclers, allowing then to take the next step towards
the formalization.
It is reasonable to think that at least part of this additional cost
would be passed on to consumers. Nevertheless, it is of utmost
importance that consumers understand packaging as a product
that costs money and requires treatment after its use. The idea dis-
seminated in developing countries, that encourages the use of
waste-pickers with no better work option as a solution to house-
hold waste recycling can hide the responsibility of the main actors
in this process: the industry, which produces the good; the local
community, which buys and uses it; and the government, which
must be responsible for the creation and enforcement of fair laws,
to protect the interests of the population and the environment.
Finally, it is important to note that this comparison have limita-
tions given the present currency-related differences between the
countries. This estimation is a first exercise to highlight the need
of Brazilian packaging industry to hold responsible of its own prod-
ucts life cycle. Likely, the final solution to the Brazilian UHSWM
system will be diverse from the German one. As Nwaiwu (2018)
concluded in his review about frameworks on digital business
transformation, there is not a one size fits all model. As it is already
happening with the implementation of advanced technologies
within modern industries, the economic reality of each country
can be an obstacle to the best performance in UHSWM, but not
and inhibitor.
4. Conclusion
The findings of this paper confirm that the UHSWM in develop-
ing countries, using Brazil as the research sample, can be improved
trough solutions successfully applied in the German case, address-
ing RQ1. The with-in and cross-case analysis using PFD and ‘‘was-
Waste Management 120 (2021) 772–783
Income Fee paid per ton/month (U$)* Received Fee/year
$0.00 9.00 n.a.
$15,979.00 113.67 40,609.20
$195,927.00 22.68 370,301.80
$4,953.00 68.85 62522.60
$216,859.00 Additional Income $473,434.00
Total income (sold material + fees) U$ 690,293.00
teaware benchmark indicators” for ISWM reveal paths and
proposals for this improvement, addressing RQ2. Results confirmed
the German city as a benchmark, attested the inefficiency of the
Brazilian UHSWM, especially in its governance factors, and revealed
feasible solutions based on the three pillars of the German solid
WM system: clear laws, regular public campaigns and the fees
methodology. The potential impact of Green Dot approaches on
packaging licensing in Brazil reinforces that the formalization and
improvement of the Brazilian recycling chains depends on addi-
tional financial investments. This formalization can empower a sus-
tainable solution for waste-pickers, shedding more light on the
social pillar of the TBL. The additional investment can also enable
improvements in technologies, and on regular public campaigns
to increase local population education in important sustainable
matters. Moreover, considering that the public sector already has
difficulty in paying for its UHSWM systems, research findings indi-
cate that the industry sector and consumers should comply with
and support financially to the improvement of the recycling chain.
Both research limitations and findings of this study can open ave-
nues for future research. First, the qualitative nature of the research
evidence, along with the inductive and iterative process used to
identify practical UHSWM characteristics might be not enough to
generalize the findings to all developing countries. Thus, future
research should also include a wider sample of cities and countries
to test the offered lessons on UHSWM on a broad scale, and in other
contexts, considering other local realities according to ISWM best
practices. A larger sample of practitioners covering additional
stakeholders involved in the UHSWM could complement and even
confirm the lessons offered herein. This can increase the generaliza-
tion of the findings embracing other developing countries. Second,
the analysis presented herein can go further on how to adapt the
Green Dot approach to the Brazilian packaging industry, to increase
the financial resources allocated to the Brazilian recycling actors. It
is necessary to adapt the market-based instruments according to
the implementation area for sustainable solutions (Magrini et al.,
2020). Therefore, it would be useful to examine the use of innova-
tive additional financial investments on a longitudinal cross-case
study to deepen the comprehension on the impacts of adopting
effective charging methods with a holistic, integrated and partici-
patory perspective. Third, the nature of the research problem is
exploratory based on a case study approach and not explanatory.
Therefore, future explanatory researches through the conduction
of surveys is suggested posing hypotheses and measuring them
with statistical analysis of the results.
Declaration of Competing Interest
The authors declare that they have no known competing finan-
cial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared
to influence the work reported in this paper.
Acknowledgements
This work was supported by the Brazilian Coordination for the
Improvement of Higher Education Personnel (CAPES) - Finance
781
Bruno Duarte Azevedo, Luiz Felipe Scavarda, Rodrigo Goyannes Gusmão Caiado et al. Waste Management 120 (2021) 772–783

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