en.Wedoany.com Reported - The Ellen MacArthur Foundation announced the launch of a project in partnership with the Recife City Government, the Brazilian Federal Government, the Clean Rivers Organization, and companies including Mars, Nestlé, PepsiCo, and Unilever, aimed at mobilizing multi-year investments of approximately over €50 million for the collection and recycling system in Recife, Brazil.
The partners plan to spend six months assessing the feasibility of establishing a new packaging collection and recycling system in the city and developing a detailed plan. If validation is successful, the implementation of the project in Recife could begin as early as 2027. At the launch event held in the city today, the Brazilian Ministry of Environment and Climate Change and the Recife City Government are expected to sign a formal support agreement with the Foundation.
This collaboration is based on the report "Closing the Loop: Transforming Urban Waste Systems and Protecting Brazilian Rivers," released today by the Foundation and the Clean Rivers Organization. The report integrates input from over 80 institutions, including policymakers, waste picker representatives, businesses, academics, NGOs, and funders. Recife was selected as the starting point for the project pilot due to the high similarity of its challenges to those faced by many cities across Brazil.
The long-term goal of the project is to establish a model that can inform national policy and demonstrate how collection and recycling can operate efficiently and equitably on a large scale in Brazilian cities by 2040. Currently, Recife has a population of 1.6 million. In 2024, plastic recycling grew by 16.6%, more than double the national average, yet only 1% of households have access to formal recycling collection services.
Research by the World Wildlife Fund shows that Brazil is one of the world's top five producers of urban waste. Although collection services cover at least 92.4% of the population, over a quarter of municipal solid waste is still improperly disposed of, with an estimated 3.5 million tons of plastic waste mismanaged annually. Furthermore, recyclable materials such as plastic, glass, and paper account for over one-third of urban waste, yet the actual recycling rate is less than 9%.
The report suggests that an improved urban waste system could recover the recyclable value of over approximately €2 billion currently lost in landfills. At the same time, the collection, sorting, and material processing sectors could create around 9,300 jobs, and the plastic recycling supply chain could generate approximately 64,000 jobs by 2030.
Approximately 800,000 waste pickers across Brazil recycle up to 90% of the country's recyclable materials, but most lack fair compensation or safety guarantees. The report calls for formally recognizing the status of waste pickers, paying them for their services, and granting them a formal role in urban collection and recycling management, based on existing national policy principles.
Recife Mayor Victor Marques stated that the project will help the city advance its solid waste management policies, pursuing not only urban cleanliness and sustainable development but also a focus on human and social development. Last year, Brazil mandated a reverse logistics system for plastic packaging starting in January 2026 and set targets of 22% recycled content and a 32% recycling rate for this year.
In March of this year, the Foundation released a report recommending paper-based solutions as alternatives to flexible plastic packaging. The key findings of this report were reviewed and interpreted by Laura Smith, Project Manager for Plastics and Packaging at the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, in a dialogue.
