Summary
CTR Rio is a solid waste management project that receives all the waste from Rio de Janeiro and the municipalities of Seropédica, Itaguaí and Mangaratiba. The Seropédica Waste Treatment Center, with 220 hectares, is a concession of Rio de Janeiro City Hall COMLURB (Municipal Company for Urban Cleaning Services) to Ciclus (SERB – Sanitation and Renewable Energy of Brazil Inc.) with an investment of US$ 80 million. Júlio Simões and Haztech are the project sponsors. CTR Rio has replaced the Jardim Gramaxo open-air dump, one of the world’s largest unregulated landfills which received all the trash from Rio de Janeiro and was highly controversial due to the environmental contamination and the presence of informal waste collectors. The project consists of a landfill, a biogas capture unit, a leachate treatment plant for processing into recycled water, a debris processing unit, and an environmental education center. This project is considered one of the few landfills in Brazil that comply with international standards, and is expected to have a great impact on air quality, as gas emissions will be captured and used for energy generation. In addition, the project team has worked with the informal waste collectors union to help them collect recyclables.
Research director
Dr. Andreas Georgoulias
Research core team
Cristina Contreras, ENV-SP • Judith Rodriguez, ENV-SP
Case study written by
Carolina San Miguel, Doctor in Design (DDes) • Veridiana Neves Lejeune, Research Fellow
