The Future of Cities: The Legal Frameworks that Prohibit Raw Waste
Burying raw waste is becoming illegal. Understand the Sanitation Framework, PNRS and Ordinance 274/2019 — and why technology is the only way out.
Managing urban waste is no longer a purely logistical challenge and has become one of the biggest legal and fiscal bottlenecks for public administrations in Brazil. Burying raw waste in saturated landfills is now heading towards illegality.
1. The New Sanitation Framework (Law No. 11,445/2007)
Many public managers still associate basic sanitation only with piped water and treated sewage. However, Law No. 11,445/2007 and its updates shed light on a forgotten reality: urban cleaning and solid waste management are mandatory pillars of sanitation.
2. The PNRS Pyramid (Article 9): Mandatory Treatment
The National Solid Waste Policy (PNRS – Law nº 12,305/2010) goes even deeper. In its Article 9, the legislation creates a pyramid of priorities that every municipality must follow:
- 1. Non-generation
- 2. Reduction
- 3. Reuse
- 4. Recycling
- 5. Treatment
- 6. Appropriate final disposal
The law makes a crucial technical distinction: residue (that which has value and can be treated) is completely different from waste (that which no longer has any possibility of use). Final disposal in landfills must be applied exclusively to waste.
3. Interministerial Ordinance No. 274/2019
This was the regulatory framework that regulated and organized the rules for recovering value through thermal treatment of solid urban waste in Brazil. The ordinance transformed heat treatment into a safe and legally protected route.
Bionergia as a definitive final destination
We are not a transfer station; we are the final destination. Through our treatment technology, we process the gross volume received, transforming waste into new raw material in a clean and controlled way.