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Loading ...A Bill to Require EIAs Before Packaging Drinks in Plastic
Saturday, May 30th, 2009Last year in a post about efforts in Brazil to stop the sale of beer in PET bottles, I explored some of the possible ramifications of an April 2008 rejection by a federal judge of all challenges to a 2002 ruling that brewers wishing to bottle their beer in PET or any other plastic must […]
Trash Photos XVI: Furniture Made with PET Bottles
Sunday, April 26th, 2009Back in January I posted about making furniture made from scrap tires that serves not only to “upcycle” (as my friend Leila insists I call it!) waste but also to help unemployed or low-income Brazilians earn income. At the time I intended to post a week or two later about similar projects involving furniture made […]
Rio Gets Supermarkets to Become Recycling Centers
Tuesday, March 24th, 2009The President of Rio de Janeiro’s State Environment Institute (INEA) just signed a “letter of intent” with the Association of Supermarkets of Rio de Janeiro State (ASSERJ) and the Federation of Cooperatives of Recyclable Material Collectors (Febracom) to install selective collection centers in all the state’s supermarkets. The centers will allow consumers to return plastic […]
Coke Donates R$20 mil. to Sustainable Amazon Foundation
Friday, February 6th, 2009Coca-Cola Brasil has just donated R$20 million to the Sustainable Amazonas Foundation (Fundação Amazonas Sustentável – FAS) to promote forest conservation in Brazil’s Amazonas state and improve the quality of life for around 2,000 families living in those forests. The Coke donation matches funds from the state government, Bradesco bank and Banco do Planeta for […]
“Eco-Pillows”
Wednesday, January 28th, 2009When I first read in O Globo of the latest offering from Campinas-based Les Coussins to be shown in mid-February at the annual trade fair of Brazilian Association of High Decoration Furnishing Industries (ABIMAD), I contacted their owner/designer, Fátima Queiroz, to ask for pictures and permission to blog about it. Fátima was not only nice […]
Trash Photos XV: Clothes and Accessories from Trash
Sunday, January 18th, 2009Two years ago I did a post about a conference of catadores (waste pickers) in Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais, that featured a “fashion show” of clothing made from recovered materials, including a dress made from used calling cards. The Brazilians are nothing if not creative. There are now several who spend much time dreaming up […]
Paper Made from Recycled Plastic
Friday, January 16th, 2009According to a report from São Paulo’s Research Support Foundation (Fapesp), a synthetic “paper” made from discarded post-consumer plastics has been developed at Brazil’s Federal University of São Carlos (UFSCar) and tested in a pilot plant of Vitopel, a manufacturer of flexible films with a factory in Votorantim, São Paulo. Produced as a film, the […]
Wal-Mart’s Plastic Bag Reduction Strategy in Central America
Thursday, January 15th, 2009Wal-Mart Central America is pursuing an interesting strategy to achieve its announced target of a 50% reduction in plastic bag use in its more than 500 stores in Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua by 2013. Whereas its brethren in Brazil have elected to offer discounts for consumers bringing their own alternatives to […]
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 […]
Brazilian Resistance to Beer in PET Bottles
Tuesday, September 30th, 2008Brazilian brewers wanting to market their beers in PET bottles are not having a good year. First a court ruling that such bottles pose a significant risk to the environment, and therefore require environmental impact studies and licensing. Then a state ban on pigmented PET, and now a looming state ban on PET bottles for […]