Issue – September 2020

At the time of our previous Mirror, business in the recycling sector was coping surprisingly well with the pandemic, with steady growth compared to the previous year. Economically, the country is looking to achieve the best possible performance to make up for lost time and to return to normal activity levels as quickly as possible.

Export records have been broken month by month, mainly by our regular food commodities, and with the help of the depreciation of the Brazilian real against the US dollar. However, as the economy and market have heated up, the domestic recycling sector has been taken by surprise by the increase in demand for scrap; generation has not been keeping up with demand, creating a supply deficit and consequently an explosion in domestic prices far above international levels.

Administration offices, as well as those agencies involved in environmental and operating licensing, have been guilty of a lack of alignment and clarity in their inspections, forcing companies to make tremendous efforts to achieve compliance with licensing requirements. The lack of understanding among these officials has generated great demand among our members for legal support, placing an additional burden on top of our main recycling and bureaucratic duties.