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    The Largest Solar Water Heater Made With PET Bottles?

    Saturday, August 9th, 2008

    One of the most popular posts here on The Temas Blog was the one introducing the solar water heater made of used PET bottles and aseptic cartons (mostly Tetra-brik) promoted by Paraná’s (PR) Zero Waste (Desperdício Zero) Program. Not far behind in popularity has been the follow-up post about how the Program is spreading the […]

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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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    Paraná Increases Pesticide Packaging Recovery

    Monday, August 4th, 2008

    Synopsis in English: In June the southern Brazilian of Paraná announced that it had increased its recovery of pesticide packaging by 20% (by weight) over the prior year. Just last year Paraná announced that they want to become the first state to comply 100% with the federal mandate to take back such packaging. North America […]

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    Giving LAC’s First Plastic Packaging Law Teeth

    Saturday, November 3rd, 2007

    An interesting thing happened over the last two weeks. Well, interesting to people like me who’ve been following the packaging waste debate for decades, at least. Environment enforcement officials for Rio de Janeiro (RJ) state “blitzed” supermarkets in Rio de Janeiro city — first on 19 October in the well-to-do Leblon section, then on 23 […]

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    Minas Seeks Packaging Waste Dialogue with Tetra-Pak

    Friday, September 28th, 2007

    Paraná forced a deal on Tetra Pak regarding waste from its long-life packaging (aseptic) packaging; now Minas Gerais (MG) wants a dialog about the same issue. If I were Tetra Pak executives, I’d start being concerned about the direction the drink packaging waste issue is taking in Brazil (if they aren’t already). As I mentioned […]

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    Tetra-Pak Chooses to Deal

    Thursday, July 26th, 2007

    Synopsis in English: In May the environment officials of the southern Brazilian state of Paraná called in Tetra Pak officials and told them to come up with a proposal to solve the post-consumer waste problem in that state associated with their long-life (aseptic) packaging — or face drastic action by the government, such as banning […]

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    Tetra-Pak Given 60 Days to Propose Packaging Waste Solution… Or Else!

    Wednesday, May 30th, 2007

    Synopsis in English: In a meeting held in Curitiba in the middle of May, the government of the southern Brazilian state of Paraná gave Tetra-Pak executives (including the Vice President for Central and South America) 60 days to come up with their own proposal to solve the post-consumer waste problem in that state associated with […]

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    One of the World’s Top PET Recyclers

    Monday, January 15th, 2007

    Take Three Guesses Who does the title above refer to? No peeking ahead! Not a particular recycling firm. I’m talking countries here! Nope. Wrong! Not the US! Not some European country. Okay, you’ve used up your three guesses. The answer is (drumroll please!): Brazil. In 2005 it recycled 174 metric tons, representing about 47% of […]

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    Quiz: Who is 5-Time World Champion Recycler of Aluminum Cans?

    Saturday, January 13th, 2007

    Brazil is five times champion of what? Well, yeah, football (futbol, or soccer as my American friends insist on calling it). But something else too: Brazil has led the world in recycling aluminum cans five years in a row (so it is not a anomaly or “blip”!). In 2005 Brazil recycled 96.2%, higher than Japan […]

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    Trash Photos VIII: More Christmas Trees Made from Recyclables

    Monday, November 27th, 2006

    I’ve found some interesting examples of elementary school competitions in Brazil getting classes to construct Christmas trees from recyclable packaging waste — whether plastic bottles (whole or sliced up), plastic bags, metal cans, or even aseptic drink boxes (Tetra brik). They are, of course, accompanied by discussion with the kids of the different materials, why […]

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