Legal aspects of waste disposal in landfills in Brazil | Aspectos legais da eliminação de resíduos em aterros sanitários no Brasil

Urbanization and population migration to urban centers is becoming a major global challenge, especially to reduce and give correct destination to solid waste. The waste generated in large cities are usually collected by the municipal government and taken to dumps or landfills. The latter have the advantage of minimizing the environmental impact by urban solid waste disposal technique in soil using engineering principles. The National Solid Waste Policy highlights some goals to stimulate the reduction, reuse and recycling of waste, in order to reduce the quantity that is sent for final disposal environmentally appropriate. These practices of urban solid waste disposal in the soil minimize environmental impacts, using engineering principles. Some technical standards are established to define technical engineering applications minimizing environmental impacts. Nevertheless, this technique does not eliminate possible environmental damage in the area where the landfill will be installed. Degradation occurs when there are changes of chemical, physical or biological order. This paper aims to describe the environmental impacts caused by the implementation of a landfill site and the importance of the recovery of degraded areas in these places