Analysis of the performance of urban solid waste management system in Brazilian municipalities through data envelopment analysis

Despite the regulation of the waste sector in Brazil having taken place more than ten years ago through the National Waste Policy, data related to the performance of municipalities at the national level are unknown. In this sense, this study aims to analyse the efficiency of urban solid waste management in 940 Brazilian municipalities and as specific objectives: to measure the efficiency scores of USWM the municipalities; analyse the performance of USWM considering the population factor, the efficiency factor, the type of management, the region and the federative unit of the municipality and present/compare the profile of the efficient and inefficient municipalities considering the socioeconomic and environmental variables and aspects related to the achievement of efficiency. The technique used was data envelopment analysis, involving three inputs: number of employees, number of vehicles and expense and two outputs: volume collected and population served. The results revealed efficiency in only 4.36% of the municipalities and an average performance equivalent to 0.32. The highest percentages of efficiency were identified in municipalities whose waste is managed by the mixed economy society, in those located in the North and Northeast regions and in those with populations above 500,000 inhabitants.