page_title: Brazilian packaging market
section_title: Recycling in Brazil
hierarchical_section_title: Brazilian packaging market / Packaging trends / Recycling in Brazil
caption_attribution_description: English: Recycling of PET in Brazil
context_page_description: The Brazilian packaging market is the fifth-largest in the world, having realized US$35 billion in sales in 2014, with Brazil being the seventh largest economy in the world by nominal GDP. The packaging market includes manufacturing of packaging materials from raw materials, distribution of packaging materials to producers, packaging design as well as recycling processes. The packaging sector has strong ties to environmental organizations and tries to adapt to the demands of environmentally friendly production with more sustainable packaging.
context_section_description: Compared to developed OECD states, Brazil has a fairly low total recycling rate, being at 2% of created waste.  As in 2012 merely 14% of municipalities provided selective waste collection - with 86% of these municipalities located in either the South or Southeastern region - the country relies heavily on waste pickers. Additionally to that, only 64% of the population has access to regular garbage collection. Yet, the situation is improving since the absolute number of municipalities offering selective collection rose from 443 in 2010 to 766 in 2012.
  Despite its low overall recycling rate, Brazil is the world leader in recycling aluminum. Having set a record recycling rate of 98,4% of aluminum, the country was able to top its record 97,1% from 2013 by another 1,3%. The main reason for the extreme aluminum recycling rate are the rising energy costs - which will continue to rise given the increasing hydropower prices caused by the 2015 drought - and consequently, the high expenses that are associated with the production of new aluminum. As between March 2014 and March 2015 the cost of energy rose by 60% and since recycling aluminum requires 95% less energy than producing new material, the recycling rates have kept rising while smelter plants have been shutting down production. PET is the second most recycled packaging material in Brazil with 54% of PET having been recycled in 2014. However, due to lower production costs this rate is yet much smaller than the percentage of recycled aluminum. Given its very low production costs as well as the more expensive processes needed to recycle the material, plastics exhibit the lowest recycling rate among the most common packaging materials. The Brazilian beauty care and cosmetics brand Sejaa serves as an example for products that use recycled packaging. Sejaa, which was launched by Brazilian fashion model Gisele Bündchen uses fibers consisting to 100% of recycled post-consumer waste paper and is Forest Stewardship certified. Another example is Brazilian pulp and paper manufacturer Suzano, which since 2012 produces paperboard made from Post consumer resin (PCR) by extracting fibers from long life packaging such as milk cartons.
  In 2012, more than one third of recycled PET was used as polyesters for the textile industry. Roughly one quarter of recycled PET was processed to alkyds, that is, synthetic resins which are mostly used as varnish, while packaging accounted for 18% of recycled PET.
caption: Destinations of recycled PET in Brazil in 2012. Data according to ABIPET and CEMPRE.[35]
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