CUTTING-EDGE TECHNOLOGY, THE ESSENTIAL RECYCLING ACCELERATOR IN BRAZIL

CUTTING-EDGE TECHNOLOGY, THE ESSENTIAL RECYCLING ACCELERATOR IN BRAZIL

Recycling in Brazil is experiencing a bipolar reality. On the one hand, this country tops the world ranking of aluminum recycling (96.5% of the waste generated) and, on the other, maintains very modest rates of plastic recycling, just 23% of waste. To achieve the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and align with the circular economy, Brazil needs to redouble its investment in new technologies, such as vision and artificial intelligence, to improve its global waste sorting and recycling capacity.

In the case of waste management and recycling, the circular economy focuses mainly on obtaining secondary raw materials, capable of competing with conventional raw materials, from waste recovery. And for this, technologies are needed to facilitate the recovery of materials that are currently part of the rejection flows and that increase the percentages of valorization. If the shift to the circular economy is to be accelerated, more and better waste management is needed.

And this is where Brazil has a problem. Only 4% of solid waste is recycled, a lower rate than its neighbors (Argentina and Chile), which have an average of 16% according to data from the International Solid Waste Association (ISWA). Although Brazil has great potential to increase its recycling rates, several factors keep them stagnant: low consumer commitment to selective separation, lack of sorting and treatment infrastructure and the absence of fiscal measures that favor recycling.

BRAZIL, LEADER IN RECYCLING ALUMINUM CONTAINERS

An appeal that is behind, for example, the undeniable success of Brazil as a world leader in the recycling of aluminum cans, with more than 14,000 million cans recycled in 2021. The keys to this success also lie in the existence of government subsidies and social environmental education programs and in the fact that more than 180,000 people are dedicated daily to collecting these containers throughout the country. The high value of aluminum makes it possible to maintain this structure, in which all parts of the process make a profit.

Aluminum cans are the ones that contribute most to the circularity of the Brazilian economy, saving the costs derived from the energy necessary for production processes from raw materials. Aluminum, one of the most recycled materials in the world, clearly surpasses glass and, in particular, plastics (PET) at all stages of the waste management system in Brazil. In this sense, the work of plastic recycling in Brazil is relevant, but there is still a lot of room for improvement, according to data from ABIPLAST (Associação Brasileira da Indústria do Plástico).

On the other hand, it is worth mentioning that, although in Brazil aluminum tops the ranking of recycled materials, there are already innovative projects working with the recycling of other materials. This is the case, for example, of Vidrioporto and Masfix, two of the glass recycling plants where PICVISA has installed its cutting-edge technology: the ECOGLASS optical separator.

PLASTIC WASTE RECOVERY

Thus, Brazil is the fourth country in the world that produces more plastic waste (one kilo per week per inhabitant, 11.3 million tons per year, being behind only the United States, China and India) and the one that recycles it the least (just 23%). In Brazil, according to World Bank data, more than 2.4 million tons of plastic are discarded irregularly, without any treatment, in open dumps, and more than one million tons are not even treated by collection systems.

Reversing this situation of plastic recycling in Brazil, in addition to being socially and environmentally beneficial, can also be a good business opportunity. The potential of the plastic recycling market in Brazil is enormous. This necessarily involves the recovery of plastic waste, until now undervalued both by those who collect and recycle it, and by those who manufacture products from it. However, waste collection and sorting remains a bottleneck for the advancement of recycling and waste recovery.

AUTOMATION WITH ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE AND OPTICAL VIEWERS TO OPTIMIZE RECYCLING PROCESSES

In this sense, PICVISA has developed a cutting-edge solution that automates recycling plants and could improve plastics recycling rates in Brazil. This is the ECOPACK optical separator, capable of classifying plastics, film, paper, cardboard and other waste according to their chemical composition, shape and colour. A technological solution capable of helping Brazilian sorters to be more competitive, reduce their costs and improve their productivity. And, in this way, collaborate so that the recycling of plastic waste increases substantially in Brazil.

Technology can therefore play a fundamental role in unlocking the deadlock of plastic waste recycling in Brazil. Taking into account the business potential, it is necessary to look for technological formulas that help the country to have a more rationalized, technical, automated and safe waste management, both for workers and for the environment. A technification of the processes that could be optimized, for example, with these optical separators that identify recoverable materials in plastic waste. This is how PICVISA joins the development of initiatives that aim to recover, by 2030, 1.5 million tons of plastic waste that is now not recycled.

Another outstanding example that Brazil is working on this innovative line within the recycling process is the start of the construction of its first advanced recycling plant, with the capacity to produce 6,000 tons of secondary raw materials annually; the first step in a long road ahead that involves investing in new technologies capable of guaranteeing the collection, sorting and recycling of waste and, by extension, a more sustainable future.