Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...

's overall

recycling Recycling is the process of converting waste materials into new materials and objects. The recovery of energy from waste materials is often included in this concept. The recyclability of a material depends on its ability to reacquire the p ...

rate is 1%, according to

Waste Atlas Waste Atlas is an interactive waste management map that visualises global solid waste management data for comparison and benchmarking purposes. Waste Atlas partnership is a non-commercial initiative supported by significant global range non-profi ...

,Waste Atlas
(2012). Country Data: BRAZIL but differs a lot from city to city.Look, M. (2009
Trash Planet: Brazil
Web). Earth911.com. Retrieved 7 December 2014. Brazil has no structured municipal recycling programs. Only 6.4% Brazilian Municipalities have official waste recycling programs.Ribeiro, H., Besen, G. R., Günther, W. R., Jacobi, P., and Demajorovic. 2005. Recycling Programs in partnership with scavenger associations as sustainability factor in metropolitan São Paulo, Brazil. The recovery of recyclable material is largely left to

waste picker A waste picker is a person who salvages reusable or recyclable materials thrown away by others to sell or for personal consumption. There are millions of waste pickers worldwide, predominantly in developing countries, but increasingly in post-i ...

s, who earn a living by collecting recyclables and selling them to private recycling companies. Main Leader Businesses in Brazil are taking a lead role in organizing recycling collection in the country's major cities.United States Environmental Protection Agency. 2002. How to Establish Recycling and Composting Programs. United States Environmental Protection Agency. In 1992, private companies from various areas (a.k.a. "heavy polluting companies") established the Brazilian Business Commitment for Recycling (CEMPRE), a nonprofit organization work for the promotion of

within the scope of comprehensive

waste management Waste management or waste disposal includes the processes and actions required to manage waste from its inception to its final disposal. This includes the collection, transport, treatment and disposal of waste, together with monitorin ...

as an initiative to build a better environmental image for their associates. CEMPRE tries to increase the community's awareness of recycling and other solid waste issues through publications, technical research, seminars, and databases.

Waste pickers

The collection of recyclable material in Brazil is largely from

s. Waste picking activities are supported by government. In Brazil, waste picking is now recognized as an occupation, and organized waste pickers are seen as legitimate stakeholders who can voice their opinions at the local, state, and national levels.Medina, M. 2008
The informal recycling sector in developing countries.
GRIDLINES. Retrieved 10 December 2014. A national program, named Integrated Solid Waste and Carbon Finance Project, is developing strategies for incorporating waste pickers into local

systems. Organizing waste picking activities into recycling cooperatives has been one of CEMPRE's main activities as well.

Materials

In Brazil, the main materials for reprocessing are

aluminum Aluminium (aluminum in American and Canadian English) is a chemical element with the symbol Al and atomic number 13. Aluminium has a density lower than those of other common metals, at approximately one third that of steel. It ha ...

, steel,

glass Glass is a non-crystalline, often transparent, amorphous solid that has widespread practical, technological, and decorative use in, for example, window panes, tableware, and optics. Glass is most often formed by rapid cooling ( quenching ...

paper Paper is a thin sheet material produced by mechanically or chemically processing cellulose fibres derived from wood, rags, grasses or other vegetable sources in water, draining the water through fine mesh leaving the fibre evenly distrib ...

and

plastic Plastics are a wide range of synthetic or semi-synthetic materials that use polymers as a main ingredient. Their plasticity makes it possible for plastics to be moulded, extruded or pressed into solid objects of various shapes. This adaptab ...

s.Medina, H. V. 2008
Materials recycling: main trends of a new industrial sector in Brazil.
Conference on

resource efficiency Resource efficiency is the maximising of the supply of money, materials, staff, and other assets that can be drawn on by a person or organization in order to function effectively, with minimum wasted (natural) resource expenses. It means using the ...

. Retrieved 10 December 2014. They also recycle batteries, cooking oil, laminated material, refrigerators and so on.Unilever. 2010
Brazil: Recycling consumer waste
Retrieved 10 December 2014 The results of aluminum recycling are the most significant.Tangri, N. 2001
Brazil & Recycling.
GreenYes Archives. Retrieved 10 December 2014.

Paper

In 2006, Brazil recycled 3.9 million tons, or 45 percent, of the

materials produced that year. Taking into consideration only the paper used in packaging, the recycling rate is even higher at 70 percent. In Brazil, industries consume 2.8 million tonnes of recycled paper. The paper recycling amount in Brazil varies greatly from area to area. In the south and southeast area, rates of

are high, at 64% and 44% respectively; whereas it is 16% in other areas.

Aluminum Cans

In 2005, the country managed to recycle an incredible 96 percent of the

aluminum can An Aluminum can (British English: Tin can) is a single-use container for packaging made primarily of aluminum. It is commonly used for food and beverages such as milk and soup but also for products such as oil, chemicals, and other liquids. Glob ...

s sold that year – almost 9.4 million cans. Aluminum is collected and stored by a chain of about 2,000 scrap collectors. 50% of the collectors are industries, and the others are supermarkets, schools, companies, and charitable entities.

Steel Cans

In Brazil, just 5% of drink cans are made of steel. In 2007, Brazil’s recycling rate for

steel can A steel can, tin can, tin (especially in British English, Australian English, Canadian English and South African English), steel packaging, or can is a container for the distribution or storage of goods, made of thin metal. Many cans re ...

s was 49 percent. The total fraction of steel recycled in Brazil, including steel from old cars, household electronics, and building waste, is estimated to be 70%.

Tires

57% of the 260,000 tonnes of used tires estimated to be thrown away each year in Brazil were sent to cement ovens in Brazil. In Brazil, used tires are applied to make

artificial reefs An artificial reef is a human-created underwater structure, typically built to promote marine life in areas with a generally featureless bottom, to control erosion, block ship passage, block the use of trawling nets, or improve surfing. Many re ...

in the sea, to increase fisheries production.

Energy In physics, energy (from Ancient Greek: ἐνέργεια, ''enérgeia'', “activity”) is the quantitative property that is transferred to a body or to a physical system, recognizable in the performance of work and in the form of hea ...

can be recovered by burning the tires in controlled ovens, because each tire contains the energy of 9.4 liters of

petroleum oil Mineral oil is any of various colorless, odorless, light mixtures of higher alkanes from a mineral source, particularly a distillate of petroleum, as distinct from usually edible vegetable oils. The name 'mineral oil' by itself is imprecise, ...

Plastic

An average of 17.5% of all rigid and film plastic is recycled each year in Brazil. 60% of the recycled plastic comes from industrial residue and 40% from urban refuse.

Refrigerator

There is a comprehensive refrigerator recycling program in Brazil.Programme Proklima
Introduction of a comprehensive refrigerator recycling programme in Brazil.
German Technical Cooperation. Retrieved 10 December 2014. They recycle refrigerators and freezers in order to reduce potential

global warming In common usage, climate change describes global warming—the ongoing increase in global average temperature—and its effects on Earth's climate system. Climate change in a broader sense also includes previous long-term changes to E ...

, because they contain

chlorofluorocarbons Chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) and hydrochlorofluorocarbons (HCFCs) are fully or partly halogenated hydrocarbons that contain carbon (C), hydrogen (H), chlorine (Cl), and fluorine (F), produced as volatile derivatives of methane, ethane, and propa ...

(CFCs), which are ozone layer depleting gases with extremely high

global warming potential Global warming potential (GWP) is the heat absorbed by any greenhouse gas in the atmosphere, as a multiple of the heat that would be absorbed by the same mass of carbon dioxide (). GWP is 1 for . For other gases it depends on the gas and the time ...

(GWP).

References

External links

{{Recycling