Page 50 - Respond 2018 Magazine
P. 50
48
Estre Ambiental establishes
itself as a benchmark in
solid waste management
in Brazil
Today, Estre Ambiental is the leading and largest
company in solid waste management in Brazil and
Latin America. The company offers a full range of
environmental services throughout the waste chain
– collection, transportation, recovery, treatment
and final destination – to municipalities, industries,
hospitals and companies in a wide range of
segments present in seven Brazilian States.
Estre uses innovative technologies that allow it to go beyond the
final and adequate disposal of waste, which is transformed into
electricity using biogas in landfills and through the production
of refuse-derived fuel (RDF), used in cement plants. Two biogas
plants – in Guatapará (São Paulo state) and Curitiba (Paraná
state) – generate approximately 14 MW and have a short-term
potential of 80 MW.
The company is one of Brazil’s largest specialists in reverse
manufacturing, a process that reuses more than 85% of
electronic waste. Additionally, it recycles building materials and
adopts microwave and electrothermal deactivation technologies
for treatment and disposal of hospital waste. All this reduces
waste volumes by up to 70% without polluting the atmosphere.
It also acts in the decontamination of soils by bioremediation.
Estre’s landfill operations are distributed in 13 units in the states
of São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, Paraná, Bahia, Sergipe and Alagoas
– where about 50% of the country’s population lives. Landfills
annually receive 6 million tonnes of waste. Another five units are
expected to start operating in the next few years.
Commitment to the environment, social responsibility
and ethical action
Estre’s mission is to provide innovative environmental solutions
in a safe and responsible way to improve the quality of life of the
communities where it operates. In line with its mission, in 2006
the company created the Estre Institute for Socio-Environmental
Responsibility, which, over the course of 10+ years, has become a
reference center for environmental education, with projects that
reached more than 300,000 participants. Moreover, it maintains a
compliance program, which includes an integrity policy based on
the anti-corruption legislation and all its laws and decrees.