Macroplastic, maker of plastic bags, along with a businessman from a supermarket chain, a non-governmental organization and the Federation of Industries (FIEP) for the state of Curitiba have decided to address the issue of garbage pollution in one of Brasil’s most industrialized regions. The innovative scheme to address the consumer-caused pollution is working in one area, Matinho. Macroplastic produces grocery bags of 6 different colors (rather than traditional, single one-design-fits-all bags). A supermarket chain purchases the bags for their regular packaging needs, the consumers receive the bags for free when shopping for groceries, and get educated about recycling process by trash collectors who are trained to separate and handle the trash correctly and communicate with consumers around the right use of bags.
Innovation
When the issue of consumer pollution was first considered, it became apparent that consumers and trash collectors are the two corners stones of successful recycling program. So, to encourage the consumers to recycle and make it very easy, Microplastic started producing grocery bags of 6 different colors corresponding to the international recycling standard. The bags are purchased by a local supermarket chain, and are provided to end consumers at no cost in substitute for traditional complimentary grocery bags.
In the summer of 2004, the Project We Gotta Value was launched, with the first aim of teaching end consumers how to separate the trash through six colored bags corresponding to the international recycling standard: glass (green), metal (yellow), paper (blue), plastic (red), non-recyclable (gray) and organic (brown). The project partners - Macroplastic, the supermarket chain, a non-governmental organization and FIEP, through National Social Services for Industries (SESI) and National Services for Industrial Learning (SENAI) - have been training trash collectors in Matinhos to separate and handle the trash correctly. The trash collectors were considered agents for the environment and encouraged to set up an association with a future goal of constituting a cooperative arrangement.
Impact
The We Gotta Value Project believes that it can continue to make a lot of progress in this arena. Three new supermarkets - Brasão, Maresia and Supersilva - have joined the project. The project is now in Matinhos, Betaras, Praia de Leste, Ipanema and other beach areas. The project brings profit to Macroplastic while making the beaches of Paraná a cleaner place and increasing the income of trash collectors. The Collectors' Association in Matinhos has made such a profit from the improvement in the collection of their garbage that they have new carts and have built their own deposit site on a piece of land they purchased.
The project has selected a few beaches and is trying to get the local shops involved, especially the restaurants and fast food stores.
The Collectors' Association hopes to become a Cooperative of Agents for the Environment, whose seed was planted this year. If they can organize themselves they will be able to separate the organic waste from the recyclable material.
Inspiration
The biggest challenge today for the Brasilian entrepreneur isn't worrying about gaining, it's worrying about not losing. The economic situation in the country doesn't give the entrepreneur the chance to make plans for big gains. However, the entrepreneur can join in projects such as We Gotta Value. The person who is there and looks another person in the eye, who spends 20 hours a day pulling that cart – when it's the high season they barely eat, barely sleep, trying to make some extra money so that their families have a better life throughout the year – that person begins to feel as important as a doctor; teaching the housewives, the lawyers and other college-educated men, when he tells people they shouldn't throw things on the street because they have the bags in which to put them. It is touching and many Brasilian's look at them with tears in their eyes. With all the hardship faced by these entrepreneurs they continue to laugh and feel good about what they're doing.
The World Inquiry editorial team edited this profile from the original submission of the interviewer or other source. The views expressed do not necessarily represent Case Western Reserve University, the Weatherhead School of Management or the Center for Business as an Agent of World Benefit. More >>
