Last week, BVRio’s circular economy specialist, Pedro Succar, presented the results of a market study conducted by BVRio in 2021 on plastic circularity in Brazil at the opening event of the Circular Plastics Programme in the Americas (CPAP), in Rio de Janeiro. The World Bank, through the IFC, funded the market study for plastics circularity in the context of an international consortium under the joint leadership of Fundación Chile (FCh) and Waste and Resource Action Programme (WRAP). 
Pedro went through the study’s primary outcome, an action plan with key interventions in the private and public sectors to accelerate a circular economy for plastics. The plan was designed to enhance the plastics value chain in the country, working from production to disposal, to create the conditions to establish the circularity of plastics and achieve a positive economic, social and environmental impact.
The study was based on interviews with sector specialists in addition to the analysis of data from various plastics supply-chain organisations in Brazil, by correlating government data, production of plastic resins, the converting industry, producers’ associations and the gravimetry of waste disposed of in landfills. “One of the biggest challenges was to analyse data from the various organisations, as they are incomplete, inconsistent between them, or focused on a specific niche of the plastic value chain, making it difficult to obtain a broad and systemic view of the sector,” he explained.
The focus of the study was on single-use packaging, which represents almost half of the plastic use in Brazil, a major problem due to the significant volume of waste with a short life cycle. Another aggravating factor is the lack of data on a large amount of imported product packaging, estimated at twice the volume produced in the country. “There is no control of the amount of plastic that is imported or the types of materials that are used to manufacture them, besides being very difficult to regulate or encourage the circularity of imported packaging.” said Pedro.
Watch the full recording of the event (in Portuguese, no English captions available):
