Efficiency in the environmental management of plastic wastes at Brazilian ports based on data envelopment analysis

The aim of this study was to analyze different port areas (leased, nonleased and vessels) in terms of plastic segregation (scenario 1) and how much of this plastic is recycled (scenario 2). Data envelopment analysis was applied and the variables were total amount of solid waste and percentage of segregated plastic in relation to total solid waste (scenario 1) and amount of segregated plastics and percentage of recycled in relation to segregated plastics (scenario 2). Segregation efficiency was low (49%) in the nonleased area, but all the segregated material is recycled, suggesting that the management bottleneck in this case is waste segregation. Similar segregation results were obtained in the leased areas and vessels (36 and 35%, respectively), but recycling efficiency was greater in the former (92 and 24%, respectively). •Plastic waste from vessels is primarily (76%) disposed of in sanitary landfills.•Vessels are the least efficient in terms of recycling.•Efficiency in ports varies between leased and nonleased areas and vessels.•The major difficulty in plastic waste management in the nonleased area is segregation.•Recycling efficiency was high (92%) in the leased area.