IMCD Brasil launches initiative to empower communities to improve recycling endeavors
Eco Conquista, an IMCD Cares initiative, will impact 25,000 residents of Diadema in São Paulo, Brazil
IMCD Brasil operates a distribution warehouse and technical application laboratories in the city of Diadema in the Greater São Paulo, Brazil. The city has a low-performing recycling program due to aged equipment, limited resources and lack of recycling education within the community.
While IMCD Brasil has had a corporate reputation for charitable giving towards local environmental and social causes to support its Diadema neighbors, employees were inspired to do even more for the community after learning of the city’s dire needs.
Seeking to create an opportunity to improve the working conditions of Diadema’s cooperative of independent sanitation workers and their dated recycling resources, IMCD Brasil employees applied for a grant from the global IMCD Cares Fund. The IMCD Brasil employees’ passion for helping the community resulted in an IMCD Cares grant that propelled the launch of Eco Conquista.
“Partnership is a key value for IMCD that transcends our way of doing business,” said Nicolas Kaufmann, Managing Director, IMCD Brasil. “As we addressed our social and environmental impact in the city of Diadema, we closely aligned with the Council of Diadema to identify the needs to support its community goals. The launch of Eco Conquista reflects our long-term commitment to Diadema as community partners and friends.”
Eco Conquista, an IMCD Cares initiative, was launched December 2021 as a new social and environmental initiative to help improve community-wide recycling efforts in Diadema. In alignment with Associação Nova Conquista and the Council of Diadema, IMCD Brasil committed to the betterment of the Diadema community of 25,000 residents by investing in new equipment for the recycling center to improve the working conditions of the independent sanitation workers called Cooperativa Nova Conquista. The Eco Conquista donations from IMCD Brasil are anticipated to increase productivity from 100 tons to 200 tons of recycled material. Additionally, the Eco Conquista initiative also will include the planting of 136 trees in the community and 40 environmental educational actions for neighboring schools and the community.
Through the Eco Conquista initiative, IMCD Brasil’s major beneficiary are the Cooperativa Nova Conquista sanitation workers stationed at the recycling center. Several equipment upgrades were donated to the Cooperative including a glass shredding machine. Prior to the machine donation, the work was done manually, posing a high risk of injury to workers.
“[These donations] will make a difference for us at production. [Before,] we had to crush the glass by hand,” said Benedita Farias, Community Leader, Cooperativa Nova Conquista. “Besides being dangerous, the [manual] process was time consuming. We are immensely grateful to IMCD Brazil for trusting us and training us so that we can improve our working conditions and productivity.”
“A project like this one has tremendous importance, especially for a city like Diadema,” said Patty Ferreira, Diadema Vice Mayor.
The launch of Eco Conquista reinforces IMCD Brasil’s long-term commitment to create an inclusive and productive work condition for the sanitation workers, its contributions to the city’s enhanced recycling program and improving Diadema residents’ quality of life.
“A project like this one […] will bring a more sustainable city with recycled materials going to the right place,” said Patty Ferreira, Diadema Vice Mayor. “This has tremendous importance, especially for a city like Diadema.”
1Recycling in Brasil: Paper and Plastic Supply Chain Jacqueline Elizabeth Rutkowski and Emília Wanda Rutkowski (2017), publicado no MDPI - Um pioneiro na publicação acadêmica de acesso aberto, o tem apoiado comunidades acadêmicas desde 1996. Com sede em Basel, Suíça, o MDPI tem a missão de promover o intercâmbio científico aberto em todas as formas, em todas as disciplinas.