BRAZILIAN COFFEE SECTOR: AN ESTIMATE OF SOLID WASTE GENERATION

Abstract

The environmental impacts are increasingly in evidence, and thus it can be said that there is growing awareness of this problem. However, even with the awakening to this consciousness and its gradual increase, it is not possible to state in a comprehensive way that all these impacts are being reduced which should be a natural trend.  Several segments, such as industrial and agricultural, for example, are also inserted in this same context, that is, not performing the management and disposal of solid waste from their production processes. The Brazilian economy is driven by a considerable share of agriculture, configuring the world scenario as one of the largest producers and exporters, being even the world leader in several product categories. Among the main products produced are coffee, cocoa, sugarcane, corn, soybeans, wheat, rice and cotton. Brazil is the largest producer and exporter of coffee and the second largest consumer of the beverage in the world. It is the 5th product on the Brazilian export agenda, moving US$ 5.2 billion in 2017. Faced with such expressiveness regarding the coffee sector, the objective of this study is to gather and raise figures at the level of estimation regarding the generation of solid waste from the Brazilian coffee sector, by region and Brazilian producing state, in the year 2018. The results obtained present a large estimated volume of solid waste generated, which is equal to its production, leading to reflection that its management is still a great challenge.