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Loading ...A New Twist to Recyclables for Electricity Programs
Monday, September 21st, 2009I’ve posted in the past about innovative Brazilian programs in the states of Ceará (CE), Mato Grosso (MT) and Rio de Janeiro (RJ) to get people to turn in recyclables in exchange for getting a reduction in their monthly electric power bill. One of the programs I liked was Consciência EcoAmpla, run by Endesa‘s subsidiary […]
Apoio de R$22.9 milhões para cooperativas de catadores
Monday, October 15th, 2007Synopsis in English: Brazilian President Lula announced on 01 October the first 24 financial lines to be awarded by the National Economic and Social Development Bank (BNDES) to cooperatives of unofficial waste sorters/ recyclers known in Brazil as catadores. The catador cooperatives are generally composed of the very poor that live off of the recyclables […]
Ecomoto Comes to Colombia
Tuesday, September 25th, 2007Synopsis in English: Motorola’s take-back program for cell phones (and two-way communicators) and their batteries and accessories (chargers, cords, earphones, etc.), ECOMOTO, has now expanded in Latin America from Brazil to Colombia. Designated collection points established in Bogotá, Medellín, Cali, Barranquilla, Bucaramanga and Pereira will accept used cell phones, two-way radios, their batteries and accessories […]
CVRD Chooses to Lead by Example
Tuesday, September 4th, 2007One of Brazil’s biggest home-grown multinationals and employers, the Doce River Valley Company (Companhia Vale do Rio Doce – CVRD) has decided to take its efforts on sustainable development and social responsibility to the next level: it is refusing to supply iron ore to clients that are not complying with Brazilian environmental and labor standards. […]
Motorola Launches Cell Phone Take-Back Program in Latin America
Saturday, July 28th, 2007Synopsis in English: Motorola has announced that it is extending its take-back program to Latin America. Under the program, all Authorized Motorola Service locations in each country will have bins in which cell phones, two-way radios and accessories (chargers, wires, earphones) and batteries. Motorola began taking back cell phone batteries in Brazil 1999, and to […]
Another Historic Court Judgment Against Officials Not Doing Their Job
Saturday, June 2nd, 2007Yesterday (31 May), it seems, was a banner day for court judgments taking LAC executive branch officials to task for not doing their job in enforcing environment laws. First the Brazilian case finding that federal environment officials must share in the environmental damage reparation costs and compensation for coal mining pollution they did not address […]
The Metals Industry Stance on Recycling and Recycled Content
Wednesday, March 28th, 2007At the end of November a coalition of entities representing major segments of the mining and metals industries* issued a joint “Declaration on Recycling Principles.” As you may have discerned by now, everything having to do with waste and recycling interests me. I downloaded the Declaration, jotted notes and questions in a draft post, and […]
Metal “Recycling” Run Amuck?
Wednesday, March 21st, 2007Just ran across an interesting article in today’s Jamaica Observer. Seems that collection of scrap metal — including foraging and scavenging and sometimes even robbing from working stock — has become very lucrative in Jamaica over the past year, skyrocketing from a US$12 million a year business in 2005 to US$89 million in 2006. Trouble […]
Is Meeting the MDGs for Water & Sanitation Good Enough?
Wednesday, September 27th, 2006This month the World Health Organization (WHO) released a progress report on meeting the United Nation’s Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) as they apply to access to “improved” water and sanitation, using data collected by the WHO/UNICEF joint Monitoring Programme (JMP). As the WHO report I recently reviewed on the linkage between environmental conditions and health […]