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Loading ...São Paulo Adopts a WEEE Law
Tuesday, June 9th, 2009The state assembly of the state of São Paulo (SP) today passed a law on “technological trash” (lixo tecnológico) that is likely to have a significant impact on the electrical and electronic equipment (EEE) product and component business in Brazil. SP is Brazil’s biggest EEE market and home to much of its EEE industry, and […]
Espirito Santo Adopts Law on Products Containing Heavy Metals
Thursday, May 21st, 2009Last month Paraná (PR) adopted a law on mercury-containing products, now Espírito Santo (ES) has adopted a law on products containing heavy metals. Which Brazilian state is next, and will it adopt PR’s single-substance approach, or ES’ broader wider net? Points of Confusion Article 1 of the brief ES law requires “suppliers” and distributors of […]
Government Study Calls for Mexican Battery Regulation / Estudio recomenda normatividad sobre las pilas en México
Friday, March 13th, 2009Mexico’s National Ecology Institute (INE) has just released an “environmental diagnosis” of portable batteries in that country. The study looks at the growth of battery consumption in Mexico, a recent analysis of the chemical composition of both formal and informal (“pirate”) batteries (looking particularly at heavy metal content and any other aspects that may make […]
Swiss to Help Minas Prepare E-waste Diagnosis
Monday, March 9th, 2009The government of Brazil’s Minas Gerais state wants to regulate waste electronic and electrical equipment (WEEE, or “e-waste” or “e-scrap”), and with their new state waste policy law, they have ample authority to do so. There’s just one problem: they are not sure of the full extent and nature of the e-waste problem in their […]
Rio to Require Take-Back of Fluorescent Lamps
Thursday, February 26th, 2009The Environment Minister for Rio de Janeiro (RJ) State, Marilene Ramos, has sent to governor Sérgio Cabral for his signature a draft decree to implement a 2007 law requiring the take-back of end-of-life fluorescent lamps. The law required manufacturers, importers, distributors, resellers and vendors of fluorescent lamps to provide consumers with containers for the collection […]
Finally, a Chance for a Global Mercury Accord / Por fin, un chance para un acuerdo global sobre el mercurio
Saturday, February 21st, 2009When the UN Environment Programme’s (UNEP) Governing Council (GC) considered and agreed on the draft decision on chemicals management, including mercury, this past Thursday, I was in the room. It’s difficult to say which emotion filled the conference room more — joy or excitement. There was plenty of both. This decision had been many years […]
An E-Waste Bill for Santa Catarina / Projeto de Lei Sobre E-Lixo para Santa Catarina
Thursday, September 18th, 2008Earlier this month a bill was introduced in the southern Brazilian state of Santa Catarina (SC) to impose extended producer responsibility (EPR) for end-of-life electrical and electronic equipment — WEEE, e-waste or “technological trash” (lixo tecnológico) as Brazilians like to call it. SC is not the first state to attempt legislation on this subject. Mato […]
Brazil Adopts New Battery Rules
Friday, September 12th, 2008Brazil’s National Environment Council (CONAMA) just replaced the country’s groundbreaking 1999 rules on the environmental management of batteries and piles (pilhas) with even tougher ones. Manufacturers should take note, since legislators and regulators in other Latin American and Caribbean (LAC) nations will. The original rules served as a reference point for many LAC policymakers, particularly […]
Getting Mercury Out of Healthcare
Tuesday, August 5th, 2008In July the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires (CABA) proudly announced that all public hospitals within city limits had eliminated their inventory of old fashioned mercury thermometers and replaced them with digital ones. Why is that significant? A 2006 study done by CABA’s Environmental Health office found that the City’s public hospitals emitted about 40 […]
Using Steel Waste as Fertilizer?
Monday, June 9th, 2008Synopsis in English: The Environmental Policy Council (Copam) of the state with the bulk of Brazil’s iron and steel manufacturing capacity, Minas Gerais, recently ruled [via what they call a binding “Normative Deliberation” (Deliberação Normativa- DN)] that certain iron and steel making wastes can be utilized as fertilizer in eucalyptus plantations in that state. Certain […]