inpEV’s creation results from a long maturing process regarding the issue of shared responsibilities of socio-environmental management and sustainability in Brazilian agriculture. Since crop protection products started being used on a large scale in the country in the 1960s, a set of laws sought to regulate their use, but there were no legal provisions mandating the disposal of post-consumption packaging.
This topic has mobilized the agricultural chain since the late 1980s and debates evolved which allowed Federal Law Nr. 9.974/00 to be passed in June 2000 and regulated in 2002. This law assigned to each agent of the agricultural chain the responsibility of one phase of the packaging reverse logistics:
- crop protection users are responsible for washing, disposing and returning the empty packages to retailers;
- retailers must indicate the return location of post-consumption packages, maintain such return location and prove that the packaging was received;
- manufacturers are responsible for logistics and the correct disposal – recycling or incineration – according to the type of packaging;
- government is responsible for licensing the receiving units and oversees fulfillment of legal obligations of each agent involved in the process;
- retailers, manufacturers and government must educate and develop awareness among producers on the importance of correctly disposing of such packaging.
In order to make this process feasible in a continental country like Brazil, it was necessary to create an entity to integrate all links of the chain and manage this system. This is the context in which inpEV was founded.
In addition to acting as the intelligence hub of the Campo Limpo System, which executes the reverse logistics, inpEV also plays an important role in raising awareness among farmers in conjunction with the public power. Besides this, it also mobilizes society as a whole by developing communication and educational actions.