Análisis del modelo de responsabilidad social en empresas públicas encargadas del manejo de desechos sólidos en el sur del Ecuador: caso de estudio del Complejo de Desarrollo Humano y Ambiental Pichacay

Abstract

Solid waste management worldwide is a very worrying environmental problem. On a global scale, it constitutes one of the problems of the prevailing economic system. This system focuses on the excessive consumption of natural resources, most of which are not renewable. Therefore, the generation of solid waste continues to increase and the final disposal is generally carried out in landfills entails another socio-environmental problem. Therefore, the location of landfills always generates a social conflict due to everything that implies having this type of landfill in urban or rural populated centers. Those who are in charge of the public administration of cities or urban centers have the general tendency to look at peripheral areas or rural areas as the most “suitable” for the implantation and construction of a landfill. However, in recent years, both public and private companies have changed their actions and included the concept of Social Responsibility in order to reach consensus with rural communities. An example in the region is the “Empresa Pública Municipal de Aseo de Cuenca” (EMAC EP) which, in agreement with the Santa Ana community, has been developing a Corporate Social Responsibility model to mitigate the impacts of the landfill built in Pichacay, belonging to the rural parish of Santa Ana, city of Cuenca, province of Azuay. When comparing each of the issues addressed by the social responsibility agreement for the co-management of the landfill and the models that have been recorded on the subject in the literature, it appears that the agreement complies with all the main drivers of the highly recognized and applied CSR pyramid. First, it has a solid economic base, since 5% of the collection for the solid waste collection service that EMAC EP obtains goes to the Santa Ana parish. A fact that is reinforced by being constituted as an ordinance of the city of Cuenca, which means, it is already an established socio-environmental governance mechanism or a public policy. Additionally, it has generated jobs with the creation and support of the existing Recyclers Associations around Santa Ana. The EMAC EP also contributes directly or indirectly through other institutions such as the Municipality of Cuenca or ETAPA EP, in community projects. In turn, from the analysis carried out to the institutional archive of the rural parish GAD of Santa Ana, the data revealed that it has a very active management in the achievement of agreements with different institutions since 2001, but on issues not very relevant for the sustainable growth of Santa Ana. In this sense, perhaps the most notable are the road maintenance and public lighting works. In short, it is clear that the agreement signed between the EMAC EP and the rural parish GAD of Santa Ana, and with the support of the Municipality of Cuenca, was a historic event for the region and the country in matters of corporate social responsibility. This situation contributed to the inclusion of this principle in the Ecuadorian Constitution of 2008. However, the survey carried out in the territory reveals some basic needs and requirements of the inhabitants of Santa Ana that are still pending; such as, a continuous and uninterrupted service of drinking water, sewerage and wastewater treatment. Here the management and competence for this type of basic infrastructure projects belongs to the rural parish GAD of Santa Ana, a government entity that has not revealed having a long-term vision on priority issues for Santa Ana. Another imperative need is the construction of the irrigation systems offered initially, and for which, the objectives of economic reactivation (agro-livestock, agro-artisanal and agro-tourism) are still unfinished. However, in relation to the functional organic structure of the corporate social responsibility model implemented by the EMAC EP and the rural parish GAD of Santa Ana, it is possible to affirm that is adequate to the reality of the Andean rural sector of southern Ecuador, as the present study has revealed. Finally, the joint action of all the citizens of Cuenca and the region has in their hands the possibility of changing the current complex operational situation of the Pichacay’s landfill, by promoting and recycling the greatest amount of waste in their own homes. Likewise, the rural parish GAD of Santa Ana can take advantage of this CSR agreement to invest in basic infrastructure projects with a long-term horizon, thereby making this CSR model successful. Failure in doing so will simply end up regressing towards a simple compensation mechanism, which, in other words, is to pay a tax to Santa Ana for the operation of the landfill in its jurisdiction.