By establishing the National Solid Waste Policy, Law No.
12,305/2010 has brought undeniable progress to the legal treatment
applicable to solid waste management services. Although Law
No. 11,445/2007 had already laid down some general guidelines for
the provision of basic sanitation services, including solid waste
management, as well as certain minimum conditions for
concessions involving these services to be granted, it was
only with the enactment of Law No. 12,305/2010 that the social and
environmental importance of urban trash and recycling and solid
waste management services was regulated.
Nevertheless, nearly five years after the enactment of the
National Solid Waste Policy, some of its most relevant
measures still need to be implemented, in practice, in several
cities. One of them is worth highlighting: the statutory
provision ordering the cities to establish, by August 2014, an
environmentally proper way to finally discharge of their waste
(Article 54).
