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 […]
São Paulo Offers Packaging Bill for Public Comment
Friday, May 22nd, 2009The Environment Secretariat (SMA) of São Paulo (SP) today published for public comment on its website a draft bill for a law on post-consumer packaging. The bill would create a rather complex shared responsibility system to ensure that post-consumer packaging in SP is either recycled or reused. Anyone wishing to submit comments or suggested changes to the […]
The Green Protocol
Saturday, September 6th, 2008A few weeks ago a press release from Brazil’s National Development Bank (BNDES) came across my desk trumpeting its signing with the Environment Minister of an agreement on supporting sustainable development dubbed “The Green Protocol.” I confess that I didn’t even scan it properly. Instead I filed it away to examine later, guessing (wrongly) that […]
Mato Grosso’s E-Waste Law / A Lei de Mato Grosso Sobre E-lixo
Sunday, June 1st, 2008Last month, while The Temas Blog was still on hiatus, the central Brazilian state of Mato Grosso (MT) became the first Latin American jurisdiction to pass a specific law on waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE), or “technological trash” (lixo tecnológico) as Brazilians tend to call it.* The new law creates a take-back regime and […]
More Glass Packaging Recovery, Less Piracy?
Sunday, October 7th, 2007When discussing recovery/recycling among packaging materials in Brazil, glass sometimes suffers by comparison. Brazil is a world leader in recycling PET and aluminum cans, and high among recyclers of corrugated cardboard (77%). Brazil’s 45% annual recycling rate for glass packaging is better than the glass packaging rate for the US (but then again, the US […]
Tetra-Pak Given 60 Days to Propose Packaging Waste Solution… Or Else!
Wednesday, May 30th, 2007Synopsis 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 […]