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New Movement on Recycling Used Motor Oil Packaging in Brazil?
By Keith R | May 23, 2009
Topics: Waste & Recycling | No Comments »
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Last year I posted about (slow-building) momentum in Brazil to collect and recycle the packaging that the new motor oil comes in, starting originally in 2003 in Rio de Janeiro (RJ) as a preemptive move by an industry group* and then expanded to Rio Grande do Sul (RS) in 2005, Paraná (PR) in 2007 and now Santa Catarina (SC) as a result of legislative and regulatory pressure from state governments.
At the time, I speculated that next on the list might be São Paulo (SP) state, since tt has the most service stations (nearly a fourth of all registered in Brazil), automotive service and repair shops, and motor oil resellers in the nation.
Another Factor: The City of São Paulo
What I failed to mention was the possible catalytic effect of efforts by environment officials in the state capital — the Municipality of São Paulo (MSP), the largest motor oil market in the state — to enforce a 2002 law on plastic packaging. The Law made producers and distributors responsible for the buy-back and reuse or recycling of plastic containers utilized in the sale of several products, among fuel oils and lubricants. [The MSP suburb of Santo André (pop. 673.000) adopted a similar law, as did the SP municipality of Ribeirão Preto (pop. 547,000).]
For years the industries affected by the law all but ignored it because the MSP government did not issue an implementing decree. The government finally did so in May 2008 with a short decree that said, in a nutshell, that the deadlines for the packaging buy-back targets set out in the law [50% within one year, 75% by the end of the second year and 90% by the end of the third year] would be counted from the date the decree was published (28 May). Even so, the major resellers of motor oil did not take the steps necessary to comply, and the MSP environment secretariat is now threatening to impose sanctions.
Time for State Legislation?
A bill was introduced this week in the SP state assembly that may change things.
If passed, this bill that would require distribution or sale points of lubricant oils to accept the return of used packaging for those products, and to pack them properly in line with environmental and public health norms, as well as the recommendations of manufacturers, importers and distributors. It would also require manufacturers, importers and distributors of lubricant oils to make available, together with points of sale, reception units for used packaging of lubricant oil. These reception units could be operated by credentialed third parties if they are properly licensed and authorized by the appropriate environment organ. [Temas Observation: Notice how the SP bill would only require the used packaging to be accepted back, whereas the MSP law requires it to be bought back. Also, the MSP law placed the onus on producers and distributors, but the SP bill would make manufacturers, importers, distributors and resellers jointly responsible.]
Manufacturers, importers and distributors would be obliged to gather the collected used packaging and adequate final destination of the returned packaging. While they could contract this out to a third party, they would remain liable for the collection and adequate destination of the returned packaging. The bill makes clear that “adequate final destination” for the used packaging would not include reuse or deposit in a sanitary landfill.
The bill would empower environment organs to condition renewal of environmental licenses for the operation of manufacturing, distribution and resell units for lubricant oils on the provision of proof of compliance with the law.
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* The National Chamber of Fuel and Lubricant Distributors (Sindicato Nacional das Empresas Distribuidoras de Combustíveis e de Lubrificantes – Sindicom), whose members include AirBP, Ale, Castrol, Chevron, Esso, Ipiranga, Petrobras Distribuidora, Petronas Lubrificantes, Repsol and Shell
Tags: Brasil, Brazil, embalagem, embalagens plásticas, environmental licensing, licenciamento ambiental, lixo plástico, motor oil, óleo lubrificante, packaging, packaging waste, Paraná, plastic packaging, reciclagem, recycling, residuos, resíduos de embalagens, Ribeirão Preto, Rio de Janeiro, Rio Grande do Sul, Santa Catarina, Santo Andre, São Paulo, waste
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