Proposal for a new evaluation protocol for recyclable waste recovery units: an overview of the western region of the state of Paraná - Brazil

Brazil generates more than 81 million tons of municipal solid waste (MSW) annually, of which only approximately 30% is potentially recyclable. Despite this, only 3% of this overall amount is recovered, mainly due to the lack of adequate structures for sorting and recovering waste. This low utilization compromises the efficiency of selective collection, increases environmental impacts, and limits the socioeconomic inclusion of waste pickers. Given this scenario, this study aimed to develop a new evaluation protocol for Material Recovery Facility (MRF), based on qualitative and quantitative indicators to identify the quality of the MRFs. The protocol development steps included defining the objective; defining the criteria and indicators; defining the evaluation method; defining the sampling unit for protocol application; collecting data; and analyzing the results. The methodology involves the definition of 12 indicators: location, infrastructure, safety, environmental health, sustainable resources, waste pickers' association/cooperative, regularization and licensing, protection, support infrastructure, materials and equipment, operational monitoring, accounting/income/benefits distributed in four categories: physical, environmental, technical-operational, and socioeconomic. The evaluation protocol was applied to 34 MRFs in the western region of Paraná in 2024, participants in the Waste Management Program of Itaipu Binacional. Out of the 34 MRFs, 44% were classified as excellent, and 56% were classified as good, meeting 76–96 and 56–74% of the indicators, respectively. Average efficiencies of 85, 77, 59, and 57% were observed for the technical-operational, physical, environmental, and socioeconomic categories, revealing that, even with adequate infrastructure, MRFs still require improvements related to health, sustainability, and the social development of their members. However, all MRFs presented high-quality indices (above 28 points), suggesting that the management of these units, especially those classified as excellent, is aligned with the best practices in the industry and has been efficient in managing recyclable waste. The results confirm that this new protocol is an effective tool for diagnosing, monitoring, and directing continuous improvement actions in MRFs, in addition to offering support in formulating public policies.