The present article aims at contributing to the debate about the issue concerning the management of urban solid residues (USR), emphasizing the following: 1) historical and cultural aspects of the emerging Garbage and Citizenship National Forum, from the Recyclable Material Collectors National Movement and from the two biggest organizations of urban solid residues collectors-recyclers in Florianópolis; 2) four different theoretical contributions which complement one another: a) the contextualization of the urban solid residues theme through the historical confront of two public administration models: the managerial and the societal ; b) the concept approach to organizational culture, according to three theoretical dominant perspectives; c) the rescue of Guerreiro Ramos classic critics to the instrumental reason hegemony over the substantive reason in the organizational theories; d) the complexity management approach as part of a paradigm change in science and organizations. This article is one of the results of a research carried out between August 2004 and December 2005 for the CNPq. It basically involved a total of 62 interviews (semi-structured questionnaires) in local organizations, direct observation and participation in meetings and assemblies. One of the results is the hypothesis of a rising confront between instrumental and complexity management.