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    LAC Meeting on Norm for Energy Management

    Thursday, August 21st, 2008

    Synopsis in English: Last February (while The Temas Blog was on hiatus) the International Standards Organization (ISO) decided to create a new project committee (PC 242 – Energy Management) to develop a new ISO management standard — already designated ISO 50001 — on energy management. The standard will aim at a certifiable approach to increasing […]

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    Mato Grosso’s E-Waste Law / A Lei de Mato Grosso Sobre E-lixo

    Sunday, June 1st, 2008

    Last 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 […]

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    More Brazilian Cities Move to Recycle C&D Waste

    Thursday, September 27th, 2007

    Last December I blogged about a new mayoral decree in South America’s largest city, São Paulo, that required the use of recycled civil construction and demolition (C&D) wastes in some city projects (primarily paving). Not to be outdone, Beto Richa, the mayor of what many consider to be South America’s “greenest” metropolis, Curitiba (the capital […]

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    Ecological Bricks Update

    Thursday, August 30th, 2007

    One of the most popular posts here on The Temas Blog, judging by stats, is one from many months ago entitled “Ecological Bricks.” It still receives a hit (sometimes several) every day. A rather unique version of “ecological bricks” discussed in that post involved entombing whole empty PET bottles filled with air. This brick was […]

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    Toward a Brazilian Certification Program for Biofuel

    Wednesday, August 15th, 2007

    Synopsis in English: At the end of July Brazil’s national certification authority, the National Institute of Meteorology, Standardization and Industrial Quality (INMETRO) held a consultation at their office in Rio de Janeiro on its plan to launch a Brazilian Biofuel Certification Program. The program primarily aims at helping Brazilian biofuel exports (particularly, but not exclusively, […]

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    Motorola Launches Cell Phone Take-Back Program in Latin America

    Saturday, July 28th, 2007

    Synopsis in English: Motorola has announced that it is extending its take-back program to Latin America. Under the program, all Authorized Motorola Service locations in each country will have bins in which cell phones, two-way radios and accessories (chargers, wires, earphones) and batteries. Motorola began taking back cell phone batteries in Brazil 1999, and to […]

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    Brazil: Feds Provide Regulatory Guidance on C&D Wastes

    Wednesday, February 14th, 2007

    Synopsis in English: Brazil’s Ministries of Environment (MMA) and Cities (MCidades) has just released a “manual” providing regulatory guidance on the management of “civil construction and voluminous wastes” — more often known elsewhere as construction and demolition (C&D) wastes — and their sorting, recycling and disposal. Ostensively the two Ministries jointly developed the manual to […]

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    Parque Nacional do Iguaçu será o primeiro do mundo a receber o ISO 14001

    Wednesday, January 17th, 2007

    Synopsis in English: Brazil’s Environment Ministry (MMA) says that Brazil is about to have the world’s first national park to receive the ISO 14001 environmental management certification. Iguaçu National Park, which includes the famous breathtaking waterfalls on the border with Argentina and Paraguay, is due to receive ISO 14001 certification in March. In order to […]

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    “Ecological Bricks”

    Sunday, December 24th, 2006

    It’s been interesting to see how much the articles on the Brazilian and Honduran buildings made using PET bottles have captured the imagination of so many readers. Since then I have been alerted to several other examples of recycled trash being used as building materials. Most of these concern what people call “ecological bricks” (ladrillos […]

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