Recycling in Brazil

Brazilian National Policy on Solid Waste was enacted in 2010. This law introduced guidelines for solid waste management and shared responsibility for products over their life cycle. Decree No. 12.688, signed into law in 2025, mandates recycling for plastic packaging. Specifically regulating articles 32 and 33, it mandates reverse logistics systems and shared responsibility for manufacturers, importers, distributors, and traders to ensure products and packaging return to the business sectors for either safe disposal or recycling/ reuse after consumer use. This mandate sets national targets for the amount of recycled content that must be present in new plastic packaging. For 2026 the target is 32% recovery, and the goal slowly increases until 2040, where the goal is 50%. ==Materials==

Brazil is one of the countries with the lowest recycling rates in the world, behind Yemen and Syria and well below the world average, which is 9%. In Brazil, the main materials for reprocessing are aluminum, steel, glass, paper and plastics. They also recycle batteries, cooking oil, laminated material, refrigerators and so on. The results of plastic recycling are significantly low, but the aluminum recycling rate is one of the highest in the world. Paper The paper industry in Brazil is responsible for 1% of the GDP. In 2023, Brazil recycled 4.65 million tons, or 58-64%, of the paper materials produced that year. Taking into consideration only the paper used in packaging, the recycling rate is even higher at 70 percent. The paper recycling amount in Brazil varies greatly from area to area. Since 1990, this is the highest rate in the history of can recycling, and is also one of the highest in the world. 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. In 2007, Brazil's recycling rate for steel cans was 49 percent. In Brazil, used tires are applied to make artificial reefs in the sea, to increase fisheries production. Refrigerators There is a comprehensive refrigerator recycling program in Brazil. They recycle refrigerators and freezers in order to reduce potential global warming, because they contain chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs), which are ozone layer depleting gases with extremely high global warming potential (GWP). In 2019 Brazil produced 2.1 million tons of e-waste. Electronic waste is a rapidly growing problem and also an opportunity for new markets in recycling and valorization. Mining e-waste has proven to be cheaper and more sustainable than traditional mining. Waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE) contain materials of strategic and economic importance. These span from rare earth metals like gold, silver, platinum, palladium, as well as more ubiquitous metals like tin, copper, iron, aluminum, among others. By extracting the WEEE from disposed electronic waste, Brazil would have access to greater and more sustained quantities of WEEE for promoting a circular economy. Even though Brazil has some e-waste recycling facilities, they also export valuable components that contain rare earth metals like gold to Europe or North America for recovery by more advanced large-scale facilities. In 2010 the Brazilian Policy on Solid Waste was enacted. This public policy created the first national regulations on e-waste management in South America. Key changes of this policy include Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR), putting more responsibility on producers of electronics to collect and recycle e-waste. Despite having policy passed, implementation remains inconsistent due to lack of government monitoring and infrastructure. ==Waste pickers==

Waste pickers are individuals who make a living off of collecting recyclable materials. The collection of recyclable materials in Brazil is largely from waste pickers. However, since the recognition of waste pickers as a formal profession, academic authors note a failure of improvements for waste pickers lives and working conditions. Health and socio-economic problems Waste pickers are a vulnerable population. They experience poverty at higher rates than the surrounding populations, are exposed to high concentrations of heavy metals, and experience injuries and sickness at higher rates from their occupation. Waste pickers are consistently of low educational and socio-economic status, and frequently live in impoverished conditions. When properly organized, WPOs can significantly contribute to GHG emissions and energy savings. In 2023, about 30% of waste pickers were organized in Brazil. In a case study involving three different WPOs in Federal District (DF), found that when working together, CO2 emissions by 59% to 62% in one year. According to research conducted by Abrelpe in 2019, recyclable materials that go into landfill improperly resulted in a loss of R$14 billion reais annually. This loss could have been allocated to waste pickers who earn a living collecting recyclables. A national program, named Integrated Solid Waste and Carbon Finance Project, is developing strategies for incorporating waste pickers into local waste management systems. Organizing waste picking activities into recycling cooperatives has been one of CEMPRE's main activities as well. == Regional disparities ==

Most of the recycling happens in the South and Southeast regions of Brazil. This is due to the centralized wealthier regions having increased access to recycling infrastructure and services. The South and Southeast regions account for over 85% of municipalities that have recycling services in Brazil. Compared to the North and Northeast which only have around 8.5% of the total number of municipalities with recycling services. ==References==