Inadequate disposal of Municipal Solid Waste (MSW) is one of the greatest environmental issues confronted nowadays. One of the techniques used for its final disposal is incineration, otherwise known as mass burning. Although this procedure remains very controversial in Brazil, some recent studies published in Europe reveal a large amount of misinformation about it. It has been widely used in European countries, Japan, and a few U.S. cities and has been increasingly and significantly adopted in China. Therefore, this article aims to carry out a literature review on the evolution of waste-to-energy recovery from Municipal Solid Waste (MSW) worldwide and the progress of mass-burning technologies, particularly in the Brazilian context. For such a purpose, global scientific databases were selected and some of their results allowed us to present how the main WtE recovery technologies function, as well as their benefits and impacts. Moreover, it was possible to systematize the main regulatory frameworks on the theme in Brazil and to reveal the country’s electricity generation capacity, in addition to depicting the progress of Waste-to-Energy Plants (WtEPs) undergoing licensing processes in the state of São Paulo.

Brazil has made progress in Municipal Solid Waste (MSW) management through national legislation focused on integrated waste handling. However, challenges persist, particularly regarding MSW overproduction. A sustainable alternative is Refuse-Derived Fuel (RDF), generated from MSW with or without biomass addition. To be viable for combustion, RDF must meet established energy and environmental quality standards. In this context, a mathematical model based on fuzzy logic was developed to classify RDF quality and support decision-making. Five RDF samples were tested, evaluating their Lower Heating Value (LHV), chlorine, and mercury contents using calorimetry, atomic absorption, and X-ray fluorescence. Results indicate that RDF produced solely from MSW tends to have inadequate LHV, necessitating drying pretreatment. Even with the addition of peanut shells, the highest classification achieved was “Regular”, suggesting limited suitability for combustion in furnaces or boilers without pretreatment. Since the general composition of MSW in Brazil is consistent with the characteristics analyzed, RDF may remain unviable for energy recovery under similar conditions. Economic feasibility studies on drying are recommended, especially in urban centers with limited landfill space.

Waste-to-Energy Technologies (WtE) have been widely used in European countries, in Japan, in some US cities, and have been growing in China. Currently, in Brazil, there are no WtE power plants in operation, but there are studies on the feasibility of this technology. The Systematic Bibliographic Review (SBR) presented in this mini-review article appears as a result of a process of prospecting documents in the following databases: Science Direct, Web of Science and Scopus. The purpose was to map the articles of the last five years on the applications of WtE technologies in Brazil. From the selection of articles relevant to the research, these documents were registered and cataloged, as well as their qualitative and quantitative analyses. During the systematization process, it was possible to raise hypotheses about which professionals have been working the most on this topic, the journals in which these researches are being published and the keywords most addressed for these case studies. In addition, it was possible to identify the characteristics of the publications related to the theme, the central axes of analysis of the studies and the primary techniques studied for the Brazilian reality. It was also considered part of the results of the present work, the systematization of the main definitions of WtE, the presentation of the main WtE technologies operations, and the exposition of the benefits and impacts of each of these technologies.

Considering the increase in the generationof solid waste worldwide, selective wastecollection is one of the initiatives thatpromote the reverse logistics of thesematerials, in a way to reduce environmentalimpacts. However, mobilizing thepopulation to promote the return of thesewastes has been a difficult task amongpublic managers. Only strategicallyimplemented communication, not treated ina unique way to reach all audiences, cancontribute to the success of selectivecollection programs. Therefore, this studyaims to identify significant variables, fromthe individuals' opinion, that impedeunderstanding the message contentprovided in selective collection programs.For this, a case study was carried out in a citylocated in the state of São Paulo, Brazil.Multiple logistic regression was used as astatistical analysis tool, in which theresponse variable (the individual's capacityto understand the content of the messages)is considered as a function of 33 explanatoryvariables. From the data analysis, it wasobtained the most adequate logistic modelwith a predictive capacity of almost 92%,such that six explanatory variables (Genre; Ifthe citizen performs separation of materials;If the citizen knows how selective collectionhelps the environment; If the citizen knowsthe municipal cooperative; If the citizenknows that the separation contributes to theeconomy of the city; and, Citizen preferencefor other media for feedback) weresignificant to the response variable. Theresults showed there is an interference ofvariables in the individual's capacity tounderstand the content of the messages,indicating that in a communicationalprocess it is necessary to take into accountthe peculiarities and heterogeneity of thepopulation to achieve the intended purpose.

Os serviços de saneamento básico prestados pela administração municipal, referentes às atividades de manejo de resíduos sólidos urbanos (RSU), interferem diretamente no meio ambiente e na vida cotidiana das cidades. Muitos municípios brasileiros enfrentam problemas de gestão e gerenciamento dos RSU e a falta de indicadores que auxiliem na avaliação desses sistemas dificulta a tomada de decisão para a melhoria técnica e operacional dos serviços prestados. Sendo assim, este artigo avaliou o sistema de manejo dos RSU do município de Tupã/SP por meio da aplicação do Índice de Qualidade de Gestão e Gerenciamento de RSU (IQ-RSU), proposto por Gothardo e Linhares (2016), que poderá servir como referencial para o planejamento e a melhoria operacional dos serviços de manejo de RSU no município. A avaliação do referido índice aplicado no município estudado revelou que há necessidade de melhoria, em especial, nos indicadores de acondicionamento e tratamento dos resíduos sólidos urbanos e de instrumentos políticos. Além disso, observou-se que a aplicação do índice estudado foi uma ferramenta importante para a identificação dos problemas e a proposição de soluções, podendo ser considerado um instrumento de auxílio às administrações públicas para melhorar o sistema de manejo dos RSU.

Considering the role of communication for the effectiveness of selective waste collection programs (SCP), the research aimed to analyze the communication process used among the actors involved in waste SCP. In order to achieve the objective, a county located in the interior of the state of São Paulo, Brazil, was used as the case study. In the research, diagrams of information transmission were created, based on the Shannon Weaver model and adapted by DeFleur, so that communication gaps in the explored SCP and possibilities for improvement were identified. Among the results obtained in the study, it was observed that there is a distance between population and the cooperative that impairs the interactivity between these actors; the current information is insufficient to reinforce behavior in the population, since they don’t take into account environmental, social and economic factors as a form of mobilization; and the most effective means of communication to the public (speakers on the trucks) is no longer used to publicize the program. Thus, the communication in the analyzed SCP still lacks improvements, since the study identified noises in the communication that lead to failures in the selective collection of the county in question.