&lt;b&gt;Cleaner Production: A Growing Movement in Brazilian Companies&lt;/b&gt;

Oduvaldo Vendrametto,Osvaldo D'Angelo Perreti,Nivaldo Palmeri Palmeri,Geraldo Cardoso Oliveira Neto

doi:10.14488/1676-1901.v10i1.240

Abstract

Cleaner Production (CP) is gaining emphasis in both world and Brazilian production sectors. Nature’s warnings indicating the exhaustion of any capacity to absorb and regenerate waste, stricter legislation regarding pollution emitters, market competitiveness associated with environmental and social responsibility cause concerns and lead to actions to reduce aggressions against the environment. This paper shows evidence of this concern and presents cases in which a large automotive industry, acting as a partner to suppliers, promotes changes in how it delivers its products, eliminating large cardboard, plastic and wood packaging. A small company had a similar initiative, reducing the use of cardboard and plastic packaging. More important is the revelation of a widely dispersed, yet growing and incremental movement of responsibilities among companies.The benefits of cleaner production implementation were evaluated by confronting environmental and financial assessment. For the ambient evaluation, it will be used methodology of Material Intensity (Wuppertal Institute, a).

Highlights

The increasing number of consumers as a result of population growth and global economic policy, regulated by the market and by aggressive competition, reduced nature's ability to handle waste to its maximum limit
In this research we looked upon the possibility of reducing waste in packaging based on Cleaner Production (CP) principles, in two production processes, for improving the company productivity
Results show that environmental gains s were equivalent to 2,300 kg/year reduction in waste at the source, reduction in part acquisition costs, improved product quality, optimization of the physical space, reduced from 100m2 to 50m2 for a gain of R$ 31.200,00 (US$ 14,512.00) per year, increased productivity, reduction in stock, organization and cleanness and improved occupational safety

Summary

Introduction

The increasing number of consumers as a result of population growth and global economic policy, regulated by the market and by aggressive competition, reduced nature's ability to handle waste to its maximum limit. The present study aimed to improve the process of wooden, cardboard and plastic packaging using the Lean and Clean Production concepts in two distinct scenarios: a large automobile manufacturing (case study 1), and a small medical supplies industry (case study 2).

Results

Conclusion