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Loading ...Wal-Mart to Reduce Phosphates in Detergents, Promote Sustainable Packaging in Americas / Compromiso de Wal-Mart reducir fosfatos en detergente, promover envase más sustentables en las Américas
Monday, January 26th, 2009From Wal-Mart: Wal-Mart Americas Aims to Reduce Detergent Phosphates 70% Company makes commitment to more sustainable packaging in the region Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. committed today to reduce phosphates in laundry and dish detergents in the Americas region by 70 percent by 2011. Wal-Mart also announced plans to accelerate its drive toward more sustainable packaging in […]
Paraná Takes Aim on New Beer Packaging
Tuesday, September 23rd, 2008First aseptic cartons, then long-necked beer bottles, now one-liter glass beer bottles. Hmmm, do you think maybe Paraná environment officials are focused on packaging waste issues? Earlier this month Paraná’s Environment Secretary, Rasca Rodrigues, again used the press to get a company to the negotiating table. He publicly attacked the new one-liter beer bottle — […]
Update on Paraná Showdown with Long-Neck Beer Bottles
Wednesday, August 20th, 2008Synopsis in English: For those of you curious about the outcome of that ultimatum that environment officials in Paraná gave to producers and distributors of long-neck beer bottles to take responsibility for their wastes or else, only two distributors (out of the expected five) and a representative of the glass manufacturers industry association (instead of […]
Update: Tetra Pak & Aseptic Packaging Recycling in Paraná
Sunday, August 17th, 2008I’ve been asked by a reader whether the deal negotiated last year between Paraná environment officials and aseptic packaging producer Tetra Pak has produced the results desired/expected. Funny you should ask that (maybe it’s not a coincidence?) — the two just issued a progress report. To refresh memories, the two-year “plan of action” agreed between […]
The Largest Solar Water Heater Made With PET Bottles?
Saturday, August 9th, 2008One 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 […]
Getting Tough About Lamp Take-Back
Saturday, August 9th, 2008Brazil [as have several other Latin American and Caribbean (LAC) nations] has been wrestling with the issue of proper disposal of fluorescent lamps for some time now. This becomes quite apparent just by browsing the Temas download list of laws and regulations regarding batteries and lamps — there are numerous lamp entries for Brazil, and […]
Deadline Near for Long Neck Beer Bottles
Tuesday, August 5th, 2008Synopsis 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 […]
Bahia to Adopt Paraná’s Zero Waste Program Model
Saturday, October 13th, 2007I’ve mentioned here several times the innovative Zero Waste Program (Programa Desperdício Zero) of the southern Brazilian state Paraná, such as how it applies to glass recycling, pesticide packaging, aseptic packaging and finding new ways to reuse/recycle plastic (PET) bottles (such as building solar water heaters). At some point I should do a comprehensive post […]
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 […]
Paraná Goes for 100% Take-Back of Pesticide Packaging
Tuesday, August 7th, 2007Synopsis in English: The southern Brazilian state of Paraná reportedly has reached, in just six years, a 98% recovery rate for used pesticide packaging, which if true places it in the top position (by percentage, if not in volume) among Brazilian states implementing the federal mandate to take back such packaging. It’s also a recovery […]