Subscribe to My Feed
Loading ...
Brazil Increases Pesticide Packaging Take-Back
Saturday, March 28th, 2009I’ve posted before on The Temas Blog (here, here and here) about Brazil’s amazingly successful program at recovering used pesticide packaging, which is achieving recovery rates higher than in many OECD nations.
Well folks, Brazil continues to improve on this front: the National Institute for Processing Empty Packaging (inpEV), the industry-appointed group solely in charge of [...]
Paraná Looks at Generating Employment from Waste
Thursday, March 19th, 2009I wish all states did this.
The Environment Secretariat (SEMA) of the southern Brazilian state of Paraná met on Tuesday and Wednesday (17-18 March) with the environment authorities of 70 municipalities in the North and North Pioneer regions of the state, and today and tomorrow will meet with municipal officials from the rest of the state. [...]
Update: Easier Buying Recycled
Friday, March 6th, 2009Parana’s public entities will finally get their recycled paper products.
A few months ago I posted about the problems the southern Brazilian state was experiencing in its pioneering efforts to stimulate recycling by requiring all state agencies, entities and offices to buy only paper products with high recycled post-consumer fiber content (50%).
A November 2007 law said [...]
Parana to Tetra-Pak: Fulfill Your Commitments
Wednesday, March 4th, 2009Just seven months ago Paraná’s Environment Secretary, Rasca Rodrigues, was singing the praises of aseptic packaging producer Tetra Pak for its implementation of a deal negotiated in 2007 concerning the firm’s responsibility for the waste problem in the state related to its packaging. Now he’s charging them with failing to live up to their [...]
Paraná Promotes Energy from Biodigestors
Tuesday, February 17th, 2009If you’ve been reading The Temas Blog for awhile, you might recall a prior post about an idea promoted by the hydropower firm Itaipu Binacional (IB) to create a network of farm-based biodigestors across MERCOSUR (Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay, Uruguay) that would generate electricity to power electric vehicles (built at facilities by the Itapu Dam) used [...]
São Paulo Rejoins the National Consumer Information System
Tuesday, February 10th, 2009In a recent post on Brazil’s consumer agencies putting consumer complaints on the internet, I mentioned that the National System of Consumer Defense Information (Sistema Nacional de Informações de Defesa do Consumidor - SINDEC) behind the move is missing a few states, most notably São Paulo (SP), the state representing some 40% of the national [...]
Mini-Bins Make for Cleaner Beaches
Sunday, February 8th, 2009In the first few months after I launched The Temas Blog, I came across a an article in regional Brazilian periodical about a couple of professors in a Paraná university who had this interesting idea. Cognizant of data showing that a large percentage of trash found on beaches consists of small items such [...]
Judges Agree: LAC Bench Needs Jurists Better Prepared for Environment Cases
Sunday, January 25th, 2009The Fifth World Forum of Judges just concluded against the backdrop of the annual World Social Forum (WSF) in Belem, Brazil. Since the site of this year’s WSF, Belem, sits at the mouth of the Amazon River, the Judges Forum prominently featured sessions on the role of the bench in protecting the Amazon.
The Judges Forum [...]
Brazil to Release GHG Inventory for Waste & Sanitation Sectors / Brasil vai divulgar dados sobre a emissão de gases de efeito estufa do setor de resíduos sólidos e efluentes
Monday, December 29th, 2008While many developing nations — including most Latin American and Caribbean (LAC) nations — are content to submit the minimum communication required under the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), Brazil has not taken the easy route. If you check the Temas listing of national greenhouse gas (GHG) inventories, you’ll see that no less [...]
Recycling Used Motor Oil Packaging in Brazil
Thursday, December 25th, 2008In past posts I’ve discussed how recovery of used motor oil is still in its early stages in Latin American nations such as Brazil and Colombia. But that’s only part of the waste problem generated by the lubricants we use in motor vehicles. There’s also the packaging that the new motor oil comes in, the [...]
« Previous Entries