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    Imposing EPR for End-of-Life Medicines and Batteries

    Thursday, May 31st, 2007

    Back in April, Colombian Environment Minister Juan Lozano promised proposals for mandatory extended producer responsibility (EPR) regimes for expired medicines and end-of-life (EOL) lead-acid batteries. Earlier this month he made good on that promise: the Environment Ministry (Ministerio de Ambiente, Vivienda y Desarrollo Territorial –MAVDT) has published for public comment two draft decrees, one on […]

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    Cell Phone Battery Agreement Signed in Colombia

    Wednesday, May 9th, 2007

    Synopsis in English: Last Friday the agreement (convenio) between the Colombian Government and the cell phone industry concluded a few weeks back was formally signed in Bogotá. In the process, a few of the questions I posed in my prior post were answered –well, partially at least. But it also raised a few new ones.

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    A Cell Phone Recycling Deal for Chile

    Tuesday, April 24th, 2007

    Movistar and Nokia have announced a major cell phone recycling program for Chile. Movistar is a subsidiary of Spain’s Grupo Telefónica that is Chile’s leading mobile telephone service provider (5.5 million clients by end-2006, versus 5 million for Entel PCS and 2 million for Claro). Under the program, “ReciclaMe” (“recycle me”) drop off points (such […]

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    Colombia Gets Cell Phone Battery Agreement

    Friday, April 20th, 2007

    According to a Colombia daily, El Tiempo, the Ministry of Environment, Housing and Territorial Development (MAVDT) has signed an agreement (“convenio”) with the cellular telephone industry to collect and export spent cell phone batteries. The agreement was signed by the major providers of cell phone service in the country, including Avantel, the industry associations for […]

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    Poll on Brazilian Attitudes Regarding Sustainable Consumption

    Friday, March 30th, 2007

    The Foundation for the Defense of the Consumer of São Paulo State (Fundação de Proteção e Defesa do Consumidor – “PROCON-SP“) has just released the results of a recent survey it conducted on the attitudes of Brazilian consumers regarding “sustainable consumption and living.” PROCON is the state consumer protection agency created in 1976, a full […]

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    The Metals Industry Stance on Recycling and Recycled Content

    Wednesday, March 28th, 2007

    At 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 […]

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    Trash Photos IV: The Carioca Model

    Monday, October 2nd, 2006

    I took the above photo in the offices of Rio de Janeiro’s Municipal Urban Sanitation Company (Companhia Municipal de Limpeza Urbana – Comlurb) this past spring. Every year when in Rio I meet with a friend in Comlurb who is a well-known and well-informed waste expert. Sometimes we meet at Comlurb’s main office in Tijuca, […]

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    The Other Side of the Cell Phone Revolution

    Monday, September 4th, 2006

    Not Our Problem? A few years ago I was chatting with someone who is involved with the process of formulating a national policy on the management of solid wastes in Brazil. We had gotten to the question of which, if any, end-of-life (EOL) products should be declared to be “special wastes” and therefore subject to […]

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    Judging the Electronic Firms

    Monday, September 4th, 2006

    Last week Greenpeace released an interesting report on the environmental performance of 14 major mobile and computer manufacturers. I recommend that anyone interested in environmental management, waste policy and corporate social responsibility to take a look at it, and I am adding it to the Temas reading list. To read and/or download the report yourself, […]

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