From the Newsroom
São Paulo – Brazil is the world leader in collection and final destination of empty pesticide containers. This year, the National Institute of Empty Package Processing Industries (Inpev) should remove 11,700 tonnes of packages from the environment. In the first two months of 2004 alone, 2,200 tonnes of packages were collected, against 850 tonnes in the same period last year.
The northeastern states of Bahia and Maranhão, southern Paraná and Rio Grande do Sul, southeastern São Paulo, and centre-western Mato Grosso, are the states with the best collection indices. Paraná, for example, jumped from 118 tonnes collected between January and February 2003 to 500 tonnes in the first two months of 2004.
In a study presented to the Agriculture, Livestock, and Supply Ministry, Inpev stated that average removal of empty pesticide packages from the environment is 50% of the total traded, whereas in the United States, for example, this percentage is around 25%. According to the institute, Brazil currently has over 80,000 square metres of warehouses that include centres and points for collection and another 700,000 square metres of open ground dedicated to receipt of packages.
When the project began, in March 2002, the institute identified 33 centres and one collection post in the country. In 2003, the year ended at a total of 230 units – 100 centres and 130 points of collection. The forecast for 2004 is to reach 400 units, generating around 3,000 direct jobs. After being collected, the packages are taken to compression centres to reduce transport costs. Then they are sent to recycling, co-processing, or incineration industries.
Apart from increasing the number of collection centres, the Inpev also wants to work on education campaigns turned to rural producers, spreading the importance of collecting packages in the environmental point of view. The industry forecasts investment of around US$ 52 million in multiplication of the collected volume over the next five years.
Inpev work is developed through partnerships with companies, associated organizations, as well as state environmental secretariats, public organizations, and organizations that represent the productive chain, among them the Brazilian Agribusiness Association (Abag), the Brazilian Agricultural Pesticide Companies Association (Aenda), the Brazilian Association of Agricultural and Animal Pesticide Companies (Andav), the National Confederation of Agriculture (CNA) and the Organization of Brazilian Cooperatives (OCB).
Agriculture minister Roberto Rodrigues was one of the pioneers in this initiative. In 1992, while he was São Paulo state Agriculture Secretary, he supported an empty pesticide package collection pilot project in Guariba, in the countryside of the southeastern state of São Paulo, which currently has one of the largest collection centres in the country. Brazil is the only country in the world that has specific legislation for collection and final destination of pesticide packages. Law 9,974, from July 2000, regulates the theme.
