VIDEO: Aluminium can recycling in Brazil

Metal Bulletin’s Latin America correspondent Carolina Guerra visited an aluminium treatment centre in Brazil, to investigate what factors place the country as first in the world when it comes to aluminium can recycling.

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Metal Bulletin’s Latin America correspondent Carolina Guerra visited an aluminium treatment centre in Brazil, to investigate what factors place the country as first in the world when it comes to aluminium can recycling.

Brazilian recycling sector is on the verge of changes due to an upcoming new law for solid wastes. The government intends to eliminate open landfills and create ways to stimulate recycling.

Elder Rondelli, recycling manager at Inbra Metais and one of the country’s most prominent specialists, gives his insights on the Brazilian recycling chain and what is to come from the new policies.

Rondelli has worked in the aluminium sector since 1974, and at the end of the 1990s he was invited by Alcan Alumínio do Brasil to set the national recycling project for the company.

TRANSCRIPT
Brazil ranks among the first in the world when it comes to aluminium can recycling, along with Japan and Argentina.

About 17 billion aluminium cans, which corresponds to 98% of the total, are recycled every year. Most of them are consumed in São Paulo, the biggest city in the country.

Each tonne of recycled aluminium can spares five tonnes of bauxite.

Elder Rondelli: “We have in Brazil the establishment of recycling centres all over the country. Besides, we have (lots of) small companies that recycle material and they represent lots of jobs for people. There’s also an established transportation system and lots of communications (among the sector). These are the factors that place Brazil as one of the first in aluminium can recycling”.

Estimatives point for up to one million people in the country working as bin collectors. They are also one of the main reasons to explain the high rate of aluminium recycling can in Brazil.

The Brazilian government is discussing changes in the national law of solid waste. The objective is to eliminate open landfills by 2014 and increase recycling.

The sector is still waiting to see what decisions will come.

Elder Rondelli: “The entrance of the government is a guess. We don´t know what is about to happen. But we hope it is going to bring credit lines, is going to bring better possibilities to buy better machineries. So we expect it is going to help, and not worsen recycling in Brazil”.

Carolina Guerra
cguerra@metalbulletin.com
Twitter: #!/cguerra_mb