Brazil – Improving waste management in Brazil
Since 2013, the Swedish EPA has worked proactively to develop relationships and initiatives in Brazil. Today our cooperation is focused on sustainable waste management.
We work together with the Brazilian Ministry of the Environment, MMA, the federal environmental authority IBAMA, and several other stakeholders in the private, academic, and municipal sectors. Based on the Memorandum of Understanding signed in 2013 between MMA and the former Swedish Ministry of Environment and Energy, the cooperation is financed mainly within the appropriation for bilateral agreements, but also through other sources of funding.
Sustainable Waste Management
Within the framework of the cooperation on sustainable waste management, there are a number of ongoing initiatives regarding municipal waste management planning, food waste prevention, and marine littering.
Municipal waste management planning – training of trainers
According to Brazilian law, all municipalities in Brazil must produce their own waste management plan. The Swedish EPA’s efforts are aimed at providing representatives from selected municipalities with knowledge and tools in context-adapted municipal waste planning. The representatives are then trained to spread the knowledge further.
Food waste prevention
Food waste affects both the environment and the economy. It’s important to raise awareness of food waste prevention to actors throughout the whole food chain. The Swedish EPA’s work aims to contribute to the UN goal of halving the food waste by 2030. From 2019, the effort focuses on contributing to improved statistics as a basis for policy development, measures, and follow-up activities.
Due to its various aspects of adverse environmental impact, food waste has become a growing concern in recent decades, in Brazil as well as globally. The Resource Management Group at the University of Borås in Sweden has published a report on a project – “Food waste quantification and investigation of risk factors for waste generation at street markets in Brazil”.
Contact
Do you want to know more about the cooperation with Brazil? Send an email to Hugo Pedrosa Latorre,