The (Non-)Existence of Social Control Instruments as a Mechanism for Public Participation in Implementing Solid Waste Policy in a Municipality in the Brazilian Amazon

Abstract

Objective - One of the main challenges in solid waste policy is ensuring meaningful public participation. This study examines the municipality’s (in)efficiency in the local formulation and implementation of Brazil’s National Solid Waste Policy Política Nacional de Resíduos Sólidos – PNRS (Law No. 12,305/2010). Specifically, it aims to assess the (in)efficiency of the municipality of Rolim de Moura (Rondônia state, Brazil) in promoting structured community participation in public solid waste policy implementation. 
Methodology - This qualitative case study is based on bibliographic research and documentary analysis and seeks to identify the presence (or absence) of social control instruments in the implementation of solid waste management. The documentary corpus comprises records from the Municipal Government, documents from the RECICOP Cooperative, and Public Civil Action No. 7004314-84.2019.8.22.0010.
Originality/relevance - The study is original and relevant because it examines urban environmental governance within the Legal Amazon, a region marked by persistent institutional and infrastructural challenges.
Results - The findings show that the open-air dump was only deactivated in 2015, and that waste transport and final disposal were outsourced to the private sector. Despite this shift, continued dumping at the former site required judicial intervention by the Public Prosecutor’s Office. The area has not undergone environmental restoration, and there is no evidence of social control tools or effective implementation of solid waste management policy, except for the limited participation of the local waste picker cooperative.
Theoretical/methodological contributions - The study concludes that the municipality has failed to effectively comply with the principles of the National Solid Waste Policy and that social control mechanisms remain sector-specific and weakly institutionalized, largely confined to the activities of the local waste picker cooperative.
Social and environmental contributions - This research aims to prompt both the Municipal Government and the community to reflect on the need for institutionalized mechanisms of social control and structured democratic participation in the formulation and implementation of solid waste policy, without which policy implementation risks remaining reactive and judicially driven rather than participatory and preventive.