A Bill to Require EIAs Before Packaging Drinks in Plastic
Saturday, May 30th, 2009Last year in a post about efforts in Brazil to stop the sale of beer in PET bottles, I explored some of the possible ramifications of an April 2008 rejection by a federal judge of all challenges to a 2002 ruling that brewers wishing to bottle their beer in PET or any other plastic must […]
São Paulo Offers Packaging Bill for Public Comment
Friday, May 22nd, 2009The Environment Secretariat (SMA) of São Paulo (SP) today published for public comment on its website a draft bill for a law on post-consumer packaging. The bill would create a rather complex shared responsibility system to ensure that post-consumer packaging in SP is either recycled or reused. Anyone wishing to submit comments or suggested changes to the […]
“Eco-Pillows”
Wednesday, January 28th, 2009When I first read in O Globo of the latest offering from Campinas-based Les Coussins to be shown in mid-February at the annual trade fair of Brazilian Association of High Decoration Furnishing Industries (ABIMAD), I contacted their owner/designer, Fátima Queiroz, to ask for pictures and permission to blog about it. Fátima was not only nice […]
Update: Among the World’s Top PET Recyclers
Wednesday, August 27th, 2008Who was #2 in PET recycling in 2006 (the last year for which there are comparable figures among nations)? Did you answer Brazil? In 2006 Brazil recycled 180 kilotons (Kt), representing about 51.3% of the PET sold in the country during that year. This means that Brazil recycles at double the rate that the US […]
Giving LAC’s First Plastic Packaging Law Teeth
Saturday, November 3rd, 2007An interesting thing happened over the last two weeks. Well, interesting to people like me who’ve been following the packaging waste debate for decades, at least. Environment enforcement officials for Rio de Janeiro (RJ) state “blitzed” supermarkets in Rio de Janeiro city — first on 19 October in the well-to-do Leblon section, then on 23 […]
Making Post-Consumer Recovery of Pesticide Packaging Work
Monday, May 28th, 2007The recent decision by Colombia to impose extended producer responsibility (EPR) for post-consumer pesticide packaging reminded me of a draft sitting in the infamous backlog queue since January. It looks at the Brazilian system for dealing with such packaging, which seems to be operating very well, in spite of predictions to the contrary by skeptics […]
One of the World’s Top PET Recyclers
Monday, January 15th, 2007Take Three Guesses Who does the title above refer to? No peeking ahead! Not a particular recycling firm. I’m talking countries here! Nope. Wrong! Not the US! Not some European country. Okay, you’ve used up your three guesses. The answer is (drumroll please!): Brazil. In 2005 it recycled 174 metric tons, representing about 47% of […]