Tons of waste tyres thrown on the streets of Manaus (Amazonas) and on the outskirts of the city, in the Amazon Forest area – accumulate standing water and serve as a breeding ground for the Aedes aegypti mosquito – will be collected and transported by containers to a recycling plant located in the Metropolitan Region of Paraná.

The action is part of the Brazil Rodando Limpo programme, an initiative of the Brazilian Association of Waste Tire Recycling Companies (ABRERP) that seeks to make the implementation of collection, transport, and final disposal systems (reverse logistics) of tires in urban centres economically viable.

According to the president of ABRERP, Joel Custódio, the situation in Manaus is very serious, with piles of old tyres piled up in flower beds in the middle of avenues and in clandestine dumps in the forest.

“I was there recently and was able to see and record on video the alarming situation of inadequate disposal that, unfortunately, is repeated in several other cities in Brazil”, says Custódio.

“Our goal is not to point the finger at anyone. We want to demonstrate that it is useless to push the problem to someone else, it is necessary to unite all involved – consumers, shopkeepers, manufacturers, importers, public authorities, and recyclers – the solution lies in everyone’s engagement”, said Custódio, who represents 14 recycling companies present in 20 Brazilian states.

Law No. 12,305, which instituted the National Solid Waste Policy, assigns responsibility for its final destination to all members of the use cycle of each product. “Sustainable development can only be achieved with economic viability, otherwise it is activism, or utopia”, says Custódio.

“That’s why ABRERP created the Brazil Rodando Limpo Programme, operated on a digital platform available free of charge on ABRERP’s website,” he says.

The executive explains that, currently, in Manaus there is no demand for rubber substrate that justifies the installation of a recycler, and those closest are many kilometres away, making an environmentally adequate destination economically unfeasible.

“We want to start the debate in the region, involving public authorities and organised society to seek a definitive solution. For the reality of Amazonas, with great distances between cities, perhaps the way forward is to encourage the use of rubber crumb in the production of asphalt”, he suggests.