For Ambipar, the challenge of the circular economy is to use science to create products from waste.

Photo Ecosolo: “It is a material that helps the soil retain moisture and improves biodiversity,” said Rafael Tello, Director of Sustainability at Ambipar Group (Ambipar/Divulgação).

Ecosolo, biocapsules, and glass recycling are among the highlights of circular economy initiatives supported by the company during the past year.

In 2022, Brazil produced nearly 82 million tons of waste, according to data from the Brazilian Association of Public Cleaning and Special Waste Companies (Abrelpe). Of this amount, only 4% was recycled, a waste considering that much of what is discarded could return to the production chain as raw material. This is what the concept of the circular economy advocates, a productive model that is growing among Brazilian companies.

The circular economy goes beyond recycling. “The idea of regenerating nature goes beyond preservation and conservation. It’s about really maximizing the positive aspects,” says Rafael Tello, Director of Sustainability at Ambipar Group, an environmental services company that values waste as one of its fronts, meaning it transforms what would be garbage into products for the industry. In addition to being one of the company’s business areas, this work avoided sending a volume of waste to landfills equivalent to the amount produced by a city the size of Brasília, according to the 2022 Census by the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE).

However, the development of the circular economy depends on creating raw materials from waste, which is not exactly easy. According to Tello, this is the great challenge for the industry. “Regeneration is part of our long-term objective because we are a company that is very concerned about the development of technology and innovation,” says the executive. One of Ambipar’s corporate goals is to become a consistent leader in the transition to a circular and low-carbon economy by 2030.

For the past 12 years, the company has had a laboratory located in Nova Odessa, in the interior of São Paulo, responsible for capturing industry demands, researching possible actions and initiatives, and incorporating them into its operation. To a large extent, the laboratory’s work, which has about 10 people focused on these multidisciplinary studies, is guided by the National Solid Waste Policy, which establishes measures for waste management in the country, such as selective collection, recycling, and reuse of materials.

The law, approved in 2010, imposes a series of obligations on companies regarding the waste they generate. Based on these legal demands, Ambipar developed its circular economy unit, focused on six materials: rubber, metal, paper, plastic, cardboard, and glass.

Making money from waste

One of the laboratory’s successful projects is Ecosolo, an organic fertilizer made from waste from the pharmaceutical and pulp and paper industries. This material, developed in partnership with Klabin, helps sequester carbon in the soil and has the IBD certification, which audits and evaluates organic products in Latin America. “It is a material that helps the soil retain moisture and improves biodiversity. In fact, we are studying the possibility of promoting greater carbon capture by plant roots, which could also contribute to the issue of climate change,” says Tello. “What was once an industry’s waste has been transformed into a product.”

Waste from the pharmaceutical industry also gave rise to the so-called biocapsules, another Ambipar product aimed at agriculture. The capsules are used for reforestation and increase the chances of seed germination, which are supplied by an indigenous cooperative, Caik. Currently, the laboratory has partnerships with other companies such as Dow and Scania for the development of new solutions.

Ambipar, which saw an 18% increase in Brazil from 2021 to 2022, is now working on a new front, glass recycling, by reusing bottles reintroduced into the chain through a sterilization process that allows up to 20 reuses, as well as glass shards acquired from the construction and food industries. The shards are processed and reintegrated into the production chain as raw material for the manufacturing of other bottles. Last year, 10 million glass bottles and 5,000 tons of glass shards were collected per month in the state of São Paulo alone.

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