A PL (bill), currently being processed by the ville City Council, aims to prohibit all forms of incineration of urban solid waste, including those that promote energy recovery (Waste-to-Energy – WtE), such as pyrolysis, gasification, plasma and co-processing.
According to the councilor and author of the proposal, Vanessa da Rosa (PT), one of the main justifications for the PL is the legitimate demand of recyclable material collectors in the municipality.
The proposal highlights that collectors play an essential role in waste management, recognized by Federal Law No. 12.305/2010 and the Municipal Solid Waste Policy.
However, according to her, they are often made invisible and excluded from decision-making processes and access to materials that guarantee their survival.
Energy generation from urban waste is the theme of a congress
The project argues that currently a significant portion of the waste that reaches the landfill could be treated and recycled, but ends up mixed, suppressing the possibility of recovery and generating a loss of income for these workers.
The bill also emphasizes the direct effects of incineration on public health and the environment, claiming that the burning of urban waste – especially plastics, textiles, organic and poorly separated waste – would release toxic pollutants, such as dioxins and furans.
“These compounds are classified as carcinogenic by the WHO (World Health Organization). Installing a URE in ville would increase the emission of these pollutants in areas close to fragile communities and ecosystems, with serious risks to the health of the local population and biodiversity,” the project highlights.
The bill also emphasizes that there is no “clean” energy use through the burning of garbage. For the parliamentarian, this practice represents a substitution of problems, because, instead of dealing with recyclable waste appropriately, it was decided to burn it, consuming valuable resources and generating new forms of pollution.
Association criticizes proposal
In a direct counterpoint to the Bill, which seeks to prohibit the burning of waste in the city, ABREN (Brazilian Association for Waste Energy Recovery) states that the proposal ignores scientific evidence and Brazil's climate commitments.
For the association, the bill goes against the climate commitments of Brazil and other countries around the world, such as , and Sweden. The association argues that Bill 144/2025, by generically prohibiting “any process that results in the burning of waste”, violates the Federal Constitution.
This is because, according to ABREN, it usurps the Union's exclusive competence to legislate on energy and interferes with environmental policy guidelines, which are a shared competence.
The National Solid Waste Law (Law No. 12.305/2010) already expressly recognizes energy recovery as an appropriate form of final disposal.
Yuri Schmitke, president of ABREN, contradicts the idea that energy recovery competes with recycling or harms waste pickers. “Contrary to the project’s justification, the implementation of an (URE) (Energy Recovery Unit) does not replace recycling or affect waste pickers, quite the opposite,” he states.
Schmitke, still warns that the the project disregards the real risks of inadequate disposal of waste in landfills, which represent one of the largest sources of methane emissions in Brazil.
In ABREN's view, by prohibiting technologies such as incineration and co-processing, PL 144/2025 prevents ville from moving towards climate neutrality and complying with the Future Fuel Law, which provides incentives for the energy use of waste to replace fossil fuels.
ABREN reiterates that rejecting incineration indiscriminately is ignoring science and refusing a fair energy transition, placing ideological interests above the public interest and Brazil's climate sovereignty.
The entity argues that the participation of collectors must be guaranteed, but this is done through investments in productive inclusion and complementary technologies that strengthen the entire waste value chain.
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