Waybefore
legislation
waspassed,wewere
alreadycollecting the
triple-rinsedcontainers,
inacomfortandsafe
manner, indelivery
locationsclose tothe
rural properties
IroSchünke,
presidentoftheInterstate
TobaccoIndustryUnion
(SindiTabaco)
M
ore than 13.4 million empty pesticide containers have been withdrawn
from the rural holdings of the tobacco farmers in the three states in South
Brazil.Theresulthasbeenachievedupuntil23rdOctober2016.Onthisday,
the Empty Pesticide Container Collection Program completed 16 years in
operation. “The total amount of containers collected so far attests to what
extent this initiative is contributing towards preserving the environment and protecting it
against possible contamination stemming from improper disposal of empty packaging,
thus avoiding the spread of pesticide waste, besides protecting the health of the farmers
and their family members”, notes Iro Schünke, president of the Interstate Tobacco Indus-
tryUnion (SindiTabaco).
The program was created by the SindiTabaco, jointly with the associated companies
andsupport fromtheTobaccoGrowers’ Associationof Brazil (Afubra). The initiativestarted
Programhas
beenoperating
for16years
andhasalready
collectedmore
than13.4million
emptypesticide
containersfrom
theruralholdings
areas
Keeping
clean
twoyearsbefore legislationwaspassedon reverse logistics inBrazil. Since2002,
Article 53 of Decree nº 4.074 sets forth that the “users of pesticides and the like
should return the empty packaging and respective lids to the store fromwhich
they were acquired”. Legislation equally sets forth responsibilities endured by
thedistributionchannels, farmers,manufacturers andpublic authorities.
Since 2000, the programhas been assisting 550municipalities inRioGrande
do Sul and Santa Catarina. The farmers are informed in advance, while two
trucks, withduly trained teams for the collection, visit the 2.6 thousanddelivery
locations in the rural setting in the two states. This service benefits a total of 130
thousand tobacco growers in Rio Grande do Sul and Santa Catarina. Before de-
livering the containers, the farmers rinse themthree times. At delivery, the farm-
ershavetheirregisterupdatedandaregivenareceiptthatcontainsthedateand
amount of containers delivered. This document is a kind of certificate required
by theenvironmental inspectionorgans.
n
Innovating
As of 2015, the program introducedanovelty that facilitated the collectionof data and themanagement of the itinerary covered. Be-
fore this time, the recordswere filledmanually, andnowtheyare filled throughanapplication. Thenewdatamanagement format of the
service includes theuseofmobiledevices (tablets) for entering the amount of containers deliveredby the farmer. “We are in theprocess
of improving the system so as to map the geographic coordinates of every delivery location, with the aim to maximize the itineraries”,
says the coordinator, Carlos Sehn. “We have equally started an itinerary revision process in order to update the areas where there are
bigger concentrations of tobacco farmers in everymunicipality”. The idea is tomake the programevenmore efficient and agile.
Inor Ag. Assmann
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