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In developing countries, there is often a lack of a comprehensive data set that supports 30 the development of coherent policies on resource recovery from wastewater treatment. 31 This paper aims to contribute to the elaboration of resource recovery projects by 32 providing accurate and updated data from wastewater treatment plants such as those 33 located in the region of the Macrometropolis of Sao Paulo. The authors discuss 34 possibilities of improvement of resource recovery for this illustrative example. 35 Comprehensive analyses were performed based on data from 143 municipal wastewater 36 treatment plants to understand the situation regarding resource recovery implementation 37 in this region. The results show that just 26% of the plants perform at least one resource 38 recovery practice. The predominant resource recovery practice is internal water reuse, 39 and recovery is concentrated more in large plants than in medium and small ones. The 40 sludge is disposed in landfills except for three plants, which perform sludge recycling 41 for compost. Some plant managers reported interest in recovering energy from biogas, 42 in expanding water reuse and in recovering sludge for fertilizer production or for 43 building materials. Several aspects that have been regarded as relevant to the 44 implementation of resource recovery processes in previous literature are discussed, such 45 as the size of the plant, related legislation as well as treatment technologies and 46 configurations. Finally, the authors propose a generic framework with several steps that 47 can help to achieve resource recovery implementation. Therefore, the results can 48 provide support for planning of resource recovery projects for large cities in developing 49 countries.