Polymeric wastes have become important in household waste, with increasing contribution to the urban waste. They present the following characteristics: slow degradation and high volume, which compromises the life cycle of sanitary landfills, and may also have economical potential in the re-use and recycle. The objective of this work is to present a characterization of the polymeric wastes conducted in the conventional and selective collection of the municipality of São Carlos, SP. The method adopted for characterization in regular collection was sampling, while for the selective collection we employed the total weight collected. In regular collection, the number of sampling involved all the 15 sectors, being the sample mass obtained with the quarter’s method. One characterization was done in the winter and another in the summer. Striking results in the regular collection were the weight percentage of 10.47% of polymeric wastes, with PET having the largest contribution (35.96%) in the resins and the preferential use in packing for food (56.42%). In the selective collection, the percentage polymeric waste was 20.60%, with the resin PET with largest contribution (50.64%) and preferential use in packing for food (66.06%). The results demonstrate the growth tendency of wastes of PET and of the preferential use of the thermoplastic polymers in food package.
Polymer; polymeric post-consumption waste; plastic waste; characterization
