Brazil’s plastics recycling rate lags output

(This was one of a handful of stories I wrote for U.S. publication Plastics News, during freelance coverage of the industry convention Brasilplast held in São Paulo in May 2011. Visit PlasticsNews.com to read the story as well.)

By Bob Moser
Published June 7, 2011

Brazil’s recycling rate hasn’t risen in step with its plastics consumption, and while municipal collection expands each year, the market is ripe for private collection companies to invest, according to analysts at Chemical Market Associates Inc.’s one-day Latin America Petrochemicals and Polymers Conference, held in conjunction with Brasilplast in São Paulo.

Selective collection in Brazil’s cities has grown slowly but steadily during the last 15 years, from 81 municipalities in 1994 to 443 in 2010. But informal collection by Brazil’s poor and homeless still accounts for more than 60 percent of all plastic collected. It’s roughly the opposite in the U.S., where 66 percent of PET recyclate comes from curbside or other voluntary collection.

Ease of collection has proven to be the key for recycling participation in the U.S., and remains the main challenge for Brazilian recycling agencies to implement in local infrastructure. The fact that few consumers want to do more than the absolute minimum in recycling is a universal concept, said Andrew Sampson, CMAI global relations manager.

Plastics machinery competition heats up in Brazil

(This was one of a handful of stories I wrote for American industry publication Plastics News, during freelance coverage of the major plastics convention Brasilplast, held in early May 2011 in São Paulo. Click here to read the story at PlasticsNews.com)

By Bob Moser
Published June 7, 2011

Brazilians’ consumption of plastics jumped by more than a million tons in 2010 and domestic production followed, prompting more than 50 percent growth in sales for plastics machinery manufacturers in Brazil compared with the year prior.

But Brazil’s manufacturing sector for blow molding machines has become increasingly competitive in recent years, with more foreign players establishing sales or production subsidiaries in the country. A rapidly growing economy is boosting consumer purchasing power, but market leaders at Brasilpast 2011, held May 9-13 in São Paulo, said they’re facing short-term saturation in domestic sales, and an overvalued currency that’s limiting their export potential.