Made of polyethylene produced by Braskem, the equipment is distributed by the Municipal Company of Urban Cleaning (COMLURB)
This week, the Local Government of Rio de Janeiro starts distributing containers made of plastic of renewable source - sugar cane ethanol - to help improve the city's urban cleaning. Known as green plastic, this resin is made by Braskem (www.braskem.com.br), the greatest world biopolymer producer and is renowned worldwide by joining the benefits and properties of the traditional plastic, including its recyclability, to the capacity of catching CO2 over its production cycle.
The forecast is to distribute 50,000 containers all over the city in the next 90 days. The first 5,000 are intended to buildings, stores, houses and condominiums of areas with larger concentration of tourists and market in the region of Copacabana and in Realengo.
The containers are made by the French company Plastic Ominum, the leader on this kind of solution in Europe. They contribute to improve the hygiene and sanitary conditions of the city. Their structure prevents the rainwater to enter and the consequent formation of leachate - liquid residue generated by the decomposition of organic matter present in trash -, and may be stored in the internal areas of buildings until their collection. Their lid also prevents the attraction of animals.
Braskem makes the green plastic since September 2010, when it opened in Triunfo (RS) the world's largest industry unit of ethane derived from ethanol, capable of producing 200,000 tons of green polyethylene per year. Differently from the fossil source plastic, the green plastic presents a positive environmental balance: up to 2.5 tons of carbon gas (CO2) are taken from the atmosphere for each ton produced.