our work in this sector

Waste generation has increased massively around the world in recent decades, and there are no signs of it slowing down. By 2050, worldwide municipal solid waste generation is expected to have increased by roughly 70 percent to 3.4 billion metric tons.

What happens to this waste varies greatly from country to country, but we know that the rates of collection, recycling and landfill disposal are very low in developing countries.

However, we also know that there are millions of informal waste workers in the world, many of whom remove waste from the environment and sell it to recycling services to provide themselves for a small income.

BVRio creates market mechanisms which deliver social benefit for informal waste workers, while also addressing the global problem of a take–make-dispose linear economy.

Products and Services

We seek to create market mechanisms to increase economic efficiency and address market failures, and to support the use of market-based approaches to create liquidity to the mechanisms created.

Impact

Our vision is to deliver positive impacts for the economy, environment and people through the work that we do.

100+ waste recovery projects enrolled in our Circular Action Hub in 30+ countries

Projects have the potential to recover 550,000 tonnes/year of plastic waste from the environment

5,000+ individual waste pickers provided with an additional income

Multiple types of solid waste recycling supported including plastic, paper, metals, cartons, textiles

Current Initiatives

Circular Beach

Circular Beach seeks to create a management model that can be replicated anywhere in the world for actions aimed at reducing plastic consumption and waste generation in tourist areas.

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Digital Waste Africa

A study and pilot project to establish if a digital waste management solution could improve waste collection and recycling in Southern Africa, starting with Angola and Mozambique.

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Ocean plastic recovery project involving Brazilian fishers

After a successful trial, our project in partnership with Italian social enterprise, Ogyre, to manage the removal of solid waste from Guanabara Bay in Rio de Janeiro, by local fishers, continues. The project sees the team of fishers removing plastic waste from the bay in their traditional fishing boats. Their plastic catch is registered and monitored through BVRio’s KOLEKT app.

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Carton Recycling Investment Programme

Often deemed hard to recycle, beverage cartons are the focus of this short pilot Circular Action Programme (CAP) for Tetra Pak in Vietnam which aims to recycle 3000 tonnes of cartons recovered from the environment by informal waste collectors.

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PREVIOUS INITIATIVES IN THIS AREA

Since 2012 BVRio has developed market mechanisms, products and initiatives in this area, contributed to public policy and been a advocate and delivery partner to others.

Contact the Circular Economy team

Thierry Sanders

Director, Circular Action (Netherlands)

Maria Accioly

Circular Economy Specialist (Brazil)

Pedro Succar

Circular Economy Specialist (Brazil)

Juliana Miranda

Circular Economy Intern (Brazil)

email the team