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DCL
With a rate of 96.5 percent, Brazil is the world's leader in aluminum can recycling, and chances are high that it can reach the seemingly-unattainable 100.
Compare that with 51.6 percent in the U.S.
An IPS story details the success story as told by the Brazilian Aluminium Association's recycling coordinator, Henio de Nicola. He attributes the success to people thinking about the recycling process "ever since the cans first arrived in Brazil in 1989."
The country has social programs that aim to educate the public on environmental issues, and a strong contingent of people (more than 180,000) who collect cans all over the country, and bring them to facilities or warehouses that will buy them—places that then save significantly on costs by not having to buy so much virgin material.
The effect is visible in local economies. IPS writes:
The recycled cans provide a livelihood for more than 180,000 families, as well as business for the owners of the collecting and storage centres.
Every day, over 300 people come to Armando da Costa's storage warehouse in central Rio de Janeiro, to deliver about 500 kilos of aluminium containers, especially beverage cans.
The paper recycling rate in Brazil is 79.6 percent, but plastic bottles are only at about half—although that's equal to the rate of the most-recycled beverage container in the U.S.
Does anyone else agree that this seems like strong incentive to encourage better bottle bills here in the U.S.?
