Avaliação dos impactos socioambientais causados pelo lixão da cidade de Zé Doca, no Estado do Maranhão

Abstract

The disposal of solid waste in landfills is an activity widely used by several Brazilian municipalities, this practice ends up causing environmental imbalance and also compromises public health. The National Solid Waste Policy (PNRS) established the creation of Law No. 12,305, of August 2010, which ordered that all solid waste in the country should have an environmentally appropriate disposal by 2014. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the socio-environmental impacts caused by the garbage dump in the city of Zé Doca – MA. The research is a qualitative research, of the case study type. Visits were made to the municipality's garbage dump to identify the environmental impacts caused by the accumulation of garbage at the site, these impacts were recorded through photographs. Three different questionnaires were applied to different groups of people: (i) to residents who live closer to the dump, (ii) to public cleaning employees of the municipality, and (iii) waste pickers working at the dump. Different types of problems caused by the dump were identified, soil pollution due to the large accumulation of waste in the place, atmospheric pollution due to the constant burning of various materials in the dump, with the release of toxic gases, and with that, the spread of respiratory diseases, in addition to the reduction of native biodiversity in the area. In this way, we believe we have achieved significant results in alerting the population and the responsible authorities about the damage caused by the improper dumping of solid waste in nature without any type of treatment