Giving LAC’s First Plastic Packaging Law Teeth

TemasEtUnam

An interesting thing happened over the last two weeks.  Well, interesting to people like me who've been following the packaging waste debate for decades, at least.  Environment enforcement officials for Rio de Janeiro (RJ) state "blitzed" supermarkets in Rio de Janeiro city — first on 19 October in the well-to-do Leblon section, then on 23 October in the Tijuca section — and fined them for not complying with Latin America's first plastic packaging law.  This quickly led to a meeting of state officials with the retail industry, resulting in industry commitments to (finally) fully comply with the seven-year old law.

What, you didn't know LAC had plastic packaging laws, much less that Rio had the first?  Ay mama, I really do need to do that packaging waste report I have been promising to Temas clients…

The First, But Long a Paper Tiger… 

Yes, RJ passed a law in January 2000 modelled after bills on plastic packaging and packaging waste that had been introduced (but never passed) in the National Congress.  Soon Mato Grosso do Sul state, the Federal District and a few municipalities (mostly notably São Paulo and its neighbor Santo Andre) adopted their own versions of the law, with legislators in many other states and municipalities seeking to follow suit (a similar bill was vetoed by Esprito Santo's governor not long ago). 

Under the RJ law, both producers and distributors are responsible for ensuring that all plastic packaging utilized for selling beverages (of all kinds), foods, lubricating oils, cosmetics, cleaning products and chemical products (but not pesticide packaging) is either recycled or reused rather than landfilled or incinerated.  Producers/distributors of such packaging have to buy their used plastic packaging from consumers — at least 25% of what they sold (notably, the laws passed by other jurisdictions afterwards — MS, and the municipalities of São Paulo, Santo André and Ribeirão Preto all set tougher targets — 90% by the end of the third year after their laws are published).  Award of a company’s environmental licenses is conditioned on compliance with the buy-back provision. 

The producers/distributors of the aforementioned plastic packaging have to devote a portion of their advertising budget on anti-litter, pro-recycling public messages.  Labels of affected packaging sold in RJ state must inform consumers on (1) proper disposal of the packaging; (2) buy-back procedures; (3) the toll-free number for more information on buy-back.

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