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    A Bill to Require EIAs Before Packaging Drinks in Plastic

    Saturday, May 30th, 2009

    Last 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 […]

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    Alcohol Abuse Growing Among Brazilians / Crece consumo abusivo de álcool entre os brasileiros

    Wednesday, April 8th, 2009

    Abusive consumption of alcohol is increasing among Brazilians, and Brazilian women are drinking more. That’s two of the findings from the Health Ministry’s (MS) 2008 version of the Surveillance of Risk Factors and Protection from Chronic Diseases by Telephone Survey (Vigilãncia do Fatores de Risco e Proteção Crônicas por Inquérito Telefônico – VIGITEL), and the […]

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    WHO Takes Aim at Alcohol

    Saturday, January 24th, 2009

    The World Health Organization’s (WHO) Executive Board (EB), meeting in Geneva this week, gave the WHO Secretariat the green light to prepare a global strategy on alcohol consumption. The EB is, as the name implies, WHO’s executive arm, giving direction to the Organization between its annual governing body meetings, the World Health Assembly (WHA) held […]

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    Brazilian Resistance to Beer in PET Bottles

    Tuesday, September 30th, 2008

    Brazilian brewers wanting to market their beers in PET bottles are not having a good year.  First a court ruling that such bottles pose a significant risk to the environment, and therefore require environmental impact studies and licensing.  Then a state ban on pigmented PET, and now a looming state ban on PET bottles for […]

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    Paraná Takes Aim on New Beer Packaging

    Tuesday, September 23rd, 2008

    First aseptic cartons, then long-necked beer bottles, now one-liter glass beer bottles.  Hmmm, do you think maybe Paraná environment officials are focused on packaging waste issues? Earlier this month Paraná’s Environment Secretary, Rasca Rodrigues, again used the press to get a company to the negotiating table.  He publicly attacked the new one-liter beer bottle — […]

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    Lei Seca

    Saturday, August 23rd, 2008

    In June I seriously considered blogging about Brazil’s new “Lei Seca” (“Dry Law”). [This is the nickname Brazilians gave to a new law on drinking and driving.] I would note its passage and main provisions*, mention that I warned last year Brazil intended to do something about this issue, and express my misgivings about whether […]

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    Update on Paraná Showdown with Long-Neck Beer Bottles

    Wednesday, August 20th, 2008

    Synopsis in English: For those of you curious about the outcome of that ultimatum that environment officials in Paraná gave to producers and distributors of long-neck beer bottles to take responsibility for their wastes or else, only two distributors (out of the expected five) and a representative of the glass manufacturers industry association (instead of […]

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    Deadline Near for Long Neck Beer Bottles

    Tuesday, August 5th, 2008

    Synopsis in English: In July Environment officials in the southern Brazilian state of Paraná called in three manufacturers and five distributors (including Ambev and FEMSA) responsible for most nonreturnable long-neck bottles used for beverages (primarily beer) in that state, and gave them until 11 August to present data and a plan to increase recycling of […]

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    AmBev Opens Huge Recycling Center

    Saturday, November 3rd, 2007

    Synopsis in English: The Brazil-based beverage giant, Beverage Company of the Americas (AmBev), has just inaugurated a huge recycling center in Rio de Janeiro state. AmBev is the largest beverage producer in Brazil, one of the largest in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC), the largest bottler of Pepsi outside the US, and the fifth […]

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    Alcohol Consumption in Brazil IV: Drinking-Related Problems; Policy Responses

    Sunday, October 14th, 2007

    At end-2005, Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) resolved to undertake a regional effort to combat alcohol consumption under the guidance of the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO). As they do, they’ll likely study the efforts of Brazil to take the lead on the issue. This past spring Brazil adopted a national policy and not […]

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