Instrumentos econômicos para a redução do lixo urbano: análise dos casos brasileiros da “taxa do lixo” e do sistema de depósito-retorno das baterias automotivas

Abstract

This study sought to demonstrate how the adoption of two economic instruments to reduce the generation of urban waste took place in Brazil. To this end, it presents the existing types of economic instruments aimed at reducing pollution, adopted both from the perspective of the Pigouvian tax and of the Coase theorem, and evaluates how the “waste tax” is applied in Brazil, as well as the “deposit-refund system” for automotive batteries. It then compares the results of these two instruments in relation to their potential for reducing urban waste. The article concludes that the deposit-refund system for batteries is more successful in removing what would become urban waste from the environment than the “waste tax”, considering that, in the way it has been adopted, it does not use the production of waste as a criterion for setting the amount to be paid by the owner of the property.