Subscribe to My Feed
Loading ...An E-Waste Bill for Bahia
Thursday, July 23rd, 2009I’m on vacation in the Caribbean, with limited internet access (and a damaged laptop) and in any case supposedly ignoring my inbox and not posting. But I peeked at the web version of my inbox using a relative’s laptop and, seeing a note on this, could not resist a quick post. It shows something I […]
Computer Take-Back in Rio de Janeiro / A Lei Sobre E-lixo do Municipio de Rio de Janeiro
Monday, June 22nd, 2009Last week the Municipality of Rio de Janeiro (MRJ) (population 6 million) became the first major Brazilian city to adopt an e-waste law. The law is rather short and simple. It requires manufacturers and suppliers of computers to receive in their offices, branches or headquarters in the City “obsolete” computers discarded by consumers. The Law defines […]
An E-Waste Bill for Colombia
Wednesday, April 15th, 2009After months of rumbling on the issue (here and here), Colombia finally has its first formal proposal to regulate waste electronic and electrical equipment (WEEE or “e-waste” or “e-scrap”) — in this case, in the form of a bill introduced in the Colombian Senate. Whether or not the bill manages to pass before the 2010 […]
Colombia Imposes Take-Back for Expired Medicines
Monday, March 2nd, 2009Two years ago Environment Minister got the attention of industry when he published for public comment two draft decrees imposing extended producer responsibility (EPR) for end-of-life batteries and medicines. Now, after nearly two years of discussions between the Environment Ministry (MAVDT) and industry groups representing the pharmaceutical sector in Colombia — namely the Colombian Pharmaceutical […]
Brazil to Invest R$220 mil. in Recycling / Brasil vai investir R$220 milhões em reciclagem
Wednesday, February 11th, 2009At a meeting for new mayors held this morning in Brasilia, representatives of the Inter-Ministerial Committee for Socioeconomic Inclusion for Catadores (catadores is what waste pickers are known as in Brazil) that federal government investments in various recycling, selective collection and municipal waste management training projects will exceed R$ 220 million in 2009 (about US$95.6 […]
Minas’ New State Waste Law Features Take-Back
Sunday, January 18th, 2009Last week the governor of Minas Gerais (MG) signed the State Solid Waste Policy Law. The Law’s 57 articles establish the principles, guidelines, goals and instruments for the correct management of waste, and defines the obligations of different waste generators and the users of urban sanitation services. Minas is not the first Brazilian state to […]
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 […]
Outlook for “Green Jobs” / Prognóstico para “empleos verdes”
Monday, December 15th, 2008While the idea of creating a “green economy” with “green jobs” has been around quite a while, it really started to gain serious consideration as the climate change debate heated up, and recently moved front-and-center during the US presidential elections and the debates about how best to respond to the global financial crisis (here, here, […]
Paraná Ratches Up Pressure on Packaging
Monday, November 3rd, 2008I’ve discussed several times here in The Temas Blog the carrot-and-stick approach the environmental authorities of the southern Brazilian state of Paraná (PR) take on different post-consumer waste streams, including electronics, glass packaging, long-neck beer bottles, Tetra Pak aseptic packaging, fluorescent lamps and pesticide packaging. You might notice that most of these categories are packaging […]
An E-Waste/RoHS Bill For Uruguay
Monday, September 29th, 2008Earlier this month a bill was introduced in the Uruguayan legislature to “create a management system for waste from electrical and electronic apparatuses.” Uruguay, it seems, is joining Argentina, Brazil, Colombia and Costa Rica among the Latin American nations finally moving to tackle the WEEE issue. The bill is relatively short (2 pages) and simple, […]