Message from the president

inpEV closed 2018 with many achievements worth celebrating, despite the challenging scenario persisting throughout the year. We have reached an important milestone: the environmentally appropriate disposal of 500,000 tons of crop protection packaging materials since the start of the Campo Limpo (Clean Field) System operations in 2002. Guided by excellence-based performance and by fostering integration among the various links of the agricultural chain - farmers, manufacturing industry, distribution channels and government -, we keep a structure in line with the growth of the Brazilian industry, besides sharing the knowledge acquired along the journey, as well as the principles and procedures that have brought us here.

Last year we reached our goals with the correct disposal of 44,261 tons of empty packaging. This well-structured and mature System is prepared to receive and correctly dispose of 100% of all packaging placed in the Brazilian market. This result has been consistently achieved over the last years. Around 94% of primary plastic packages (that are in direct contact with the product) sold in the country were properly disposed in 2018.

InpEV is also involved with the proper disposal of post-consumption leftover products which may still have been in possession of farmers. In 2018, the Institute continued its project of receiving this type of material at the Campo Limpo System units, ending the year with 103 central stations and 101 outposts suited for this activity. Last year, 99.8 tons of post-consumption leftovers were disposed.

2018 also imposed challenges and probably the greatest was the truckers’ strike, which caused important impacts to inpEV, since our activities are directly linked to logistics. Management of operational issues directly arising from this stoppage and the cost effects derived from the new established shipping values required efforts and dedication from inpEV in order to mitigate the impacts.

By always embracing the opportunities to improve management and its processes, throughout last year inpEV worked on several projects focusing on efficiency and productivity gains, such as changes to the label and insert cleaning process of rigid plastic packages, which will be submitted to automated cleaning executed by partnering recyclers, thus generating operational gains and reducing costs; the non-washed rigid packaging recycling project, which replaces incineration and required restructuring the Procurement area, which now counts with a Strategic Sourcing tool that allows greater control and efficiency in our procurement processes.

InpEV has also invested in the areas of work and process safety. Each of our packaging receiving units is managed with all the necessary care from an environmental, safety and hygiene standpoint. Recently, inpEV has started to reflect on the importance of having more centralized and integrated management of this structure, thereby seeking gains in efficiency, cost reduction and greater safety for all links of the chain. These discussions started in 2018 and are already at an advanced stage and we hope they evolve quickly in the near future.

All this work not only brings concrete results but also yields recognition from society, by inspiring other innovative actions and helping to spread even more best practices in reverse logistics. Thus, it was a great satisfaction to have inpEV participate at the CropLife China event in 2018 and present its successful experiences in receiving and recycling crop protection packaging. Besides this, the Campo Limpo System was recognized as a success case in the Circular Economy work, which discusses this so important concept to deal with sustainability challenges in our contemporary world.

It is within this continuous improvement horizon and convinced of the importance of our work for a productive activity that combines efficiency and suitability to environmental needs that we celebrate our 2018 results and look forward to 2019, certain of new achievements.